Etiquette
by Sarcastic-Bones
Summary: Rose Weasley left Hogwarts for Beauxbatons, but for her sixth year she's returned, much to Scorpius' annoyance. Then they start to get on really well... Everything would be brilliant, if only he wasn't such a man-whore. ScoRose fic for tiiinam.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everybody! No, this isn't the sequel to Help Me, Please, but that _will_ be coming as soon as I get this up.**

**Basically, the brilliant tiiinam gave me the background to this idea, and some pointers for the plot, and asked if I'd be interested in writing it. I was a great idea, and I'd been planning a "Scorpius comes back from Durmstrang" type fic, so I loved this (I might still write that as a one-shot or something, as it would be different to this, but it wouldn't be coming soon or anything). Anyways, this is _not_ Help Me, Please. In fact, it's pretty different from anything I've written really. Firstly because Scorpius is... well, he's a bit of a jerk, and there's more mature themes in this, more swearing, etc (but not enough for me to bump it up from T - I'm pretty sure nothing in this fic will shock a modern teen).**

**Anyways, a huge thank you to tiiinam, who this fic is dedicated to, and I hope you guys stick read, review, and stick around for the rest. It'll be around 10 chapters, not too long. :D**

**Thank you!**

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><p>"And I'm telling you now, Al, if that bloody Notch asks me one more time why I take Muggle Studies, I swear I'm going to shove-"<p>

"Can I tell you something?"

From our positions laying flat on the soft grass by the pond in my back garden at Malfoy Manor, I hadn't noticed my best mate, Al Potter, hadn't been listening to me as I rambled on.

Tearing my eyes away from the clouds, I sat up, turning to glance at him warily. "You're not going to hug me after this, are you?"

Suddenly his eyes snapped to mine, focusing. "Never."

"Thank Merlin," I sighed as he sat up, reaching forwards to grab a Bertie Botts Every Flavour Bean and throw it into the pond a metre and a half from where we were lounging.

Even though it was late afternoon, bordering early evening, we were both shirtless, and wearing shorts. It was the last day of summer, just before we returned to Hogwarts for our Sixth Year, and August always seemed to want to mock us by adopting a heat wave just when we were faced with returning to school.

It wasn't that I didn't like school - it was more my home than the Manor was - I just didn't want to go back to the work. I was clever, clever and apparently courageous enough to be put in Gryffindor instead of Slytherin despite my family's tradition, but I didn't find the academics at Hogwarts all that challenging. Being first in almost every test got boring after a while. Especially when people began to look at you like a freakishly smart kid.

And that meant unpopularity. So I'd toned it down pretty quickly in my first year, hiding my grades, largely ignoring markings on papers until I'd got back to my dorm in the evening.

Al and I were popular. Hogwarts always had social cliques, and it probably always would, like every school. Luckily Al and I had come out somewhere near the top.

To this day, I still don't know how we managed it.

Well, Al being Albus Severus Potter, son of The Boy Who Lived (twice, if you believe the tales) and The Chosen One? I sort of guessed why people were drawn to him to begin with.

But it was more than that.

Al was just one of those people that you couldn't help but like. He had a friendly manner, could joke easily, and put people at ease with a simple sentence. Plus, he was good-looking, and people liked a pretty face.

Probably why they liked me too.

It seems kind of crazy that a Malfoy and a Potter were mates, let alone best mates. It wasn't like we planned it or anything. We didn't meet each other on the Platform on the first day of our first year at Hogwarts and go: _"Hey, you know what'll piss off our parents?"_

No, it just happened. Al and his cousin came and sat in my compartment. People were avoiding me because I was a Malfoy - yeah, the Pariah-like status had almost completely gone by then (apart from to my grandfather Lucius, but we don't talk about him), but on that day I was the first Malfoy to attend Hogwarts since the Great War. People were a little wary, even if they didn't want to be.

So when Al and her came and sat in my compartment, I think I almost died of shock when I looked up and saw that knobbly-kneed, dark haired eleven year old open the door and wander in as if I was any old kid with any old family history.

_She _didn't like me. I could tell from that one glance up from the window - Al was completely unfazed, probably didn't even think it was odd that we were talking, but she obviously did.

She didn't want to sit in the compartment to begin with: she complained and sulked and tutted a lot. Al rolled his eyes and ignored her. So that gangly, frizzy haired, know-it-all red head sulked the whole way to Hogwarts, whilst Al and I became friends.

I remember clearly thinking: _Fine. Suit yourself._

It's not as if I cared what she thought. She was a train wreck to look at. Too harsh? Okay, we were all awkward pre-pubescent kids, but her limbs were too long for her to balance herself properly, her hair was ridiculously untameable, her front teeth stuck out like she was permanently ready to bite into something, and her skin was too pale.

Okay, so her dislike of me may have _slightly_ biased my feelings towards her.

But whatever. She started it.

The one thing I could never criticise, could _never_ even bring myself to think a bad thought about, were her eyes. She was fiery, determined, and this was reflected in them. I knew then that however she looked when she grew up, she'd always have that spirit, and those beautiful flecks of brown swirling in the deep navy blue. Eyes so fiery, so warm, but yet cold.

Cold towards me, anyway.

I quickly came to that conclusion.

Definitely cold.

She argued with me constantly after that train ride. It didn't help that we were put in the same house, Gryffindor, and Al wasn't enough of a buffer, of a peacekeeper. It was like I was scum, never worth her time, every time she peered down at me.

That's another thing I hated right from the beginning - the way she could literally look down upon me.

I suppose from her point of view I could understand it a little: I was a Malfoy, and I was 'stealing' her best mate from her. Al and her had been inseparable since they were born, and even used to have a double pram because they were together so much. They went to playschool together, and were home schooled together before attending Hogwarts. Their family used to call them Double Trouble, because that's what they were.

But hey, it wasn't my fault Al wanted a guy friend as well. Someone who he could grow up with, be stupid with, rate girls with (and hope one of them would notice us).When Al soon decided he wanted to be my partner in the classes we had together… well, I knew it wasn't going to go down well with her. I hadn't done anything directly, just found a friend, but it had caused her to lose one. Which made his cousin all that more mad. She was furious. Yelling at first, saying how she was the best qualified to be his partner because her mother had taught her some things that could help Al (because, let's face it, he wasn't - and still isn't - the brightest light bulb in the shed).Then, after the yelling, it became sadness. Tears brimming in her eyes, asking why she wasn't good enough for Al but I was. Al just told her that he wanted to find new friends and he wanted to do it as soon as possible before all the good friends were gone. From his point of view he honestly didn't want to hurt her, he just wanted some independence.

I don't blame him. With the amount of cousins he had already attending Hogwarts, it was easy for him to fall into their friendship circle and never leave, never make his own best mates, never actually gain independence outside his family. And he desperately wanted to. He didn't want to depend on them and never have to man up and do things for himself.

He told her since they were cousins _and _best mates they would need to find other friends as well, because he didn't want to be friends with _just _her. That would be 'lame' (as he put it), if he was only friends with his girl cousin.

She soon came to terms with this, and decided to make some friends of her own. Last I remember she started getting on well with a couple of girls, Maddie and Bea. Her and Al were still best mates, but they didn't hang around each other as much. Thank Merlin for that, otherwise I would have had to put up with the annoying thing all the time.

By the end of First Year, we'd agreed to hang out at mine for the last two weeks of the summer. Initially his family had invited me to his for the first two weeks, but I'd declined. As a twelve year old, the whole gaggle of the Weasley Clan was just too much for me to handle, plus the pressure of meeting _Harry Potter_, who I used to dress up and pretend to be as a kid (not that I ever told Al that), and the fact that his cousin and I hated each other? Well, hanging out with Al's family didn't seem like a good idea.

I see them now, frequently in the holidays, but never for long. Al and I don't spend much time inside. We're usually outside playing Quidditch, or at the beach trying to chat up girls. His family are nice though - they've always been accepting of me, I guess as soon as they realised Al and I were friends, they decided to let every thing from the past go. Completely.

Everybody but Rose, I guess. Because the first day back on the Hogwarts Express for our Second Year, I noticed something was off. It was quiet and peaceful when we found our compartment, and nobody came to yell at me during the ride, or on the I finally realised it was because his cousin wasn't on the train, I became suspicious. So I asked Al where the annoying know-it-all Milky was (a nickname dubbed for her extremely pale skin, which she particularly hated, and so which I of course loved even more).

He shot me a look before telling me that she had transferred schools to Beauxbatons. I was so shocked, I remember dropping my Pumpkin Pasty.

Kids rarely transferred. But she had. I realised Al was actually quite upset by it - I knew him, so I knew part of him blamed himself for 'making' her leave. In actuality, she'd always been close to her cousin Dominique, and when her mother asked if she wanted to transfer with her to the same school in France, she'd accepted.

Dom was a year older, and she'd found it hard making friends at the French school. Sure, her sister Victoire had gone there for a couple of years before transferring to Hogwarts in her Fourth Year because she missed her family, but Dom liked it there. She just found the extreme change from her family life back in England a little unnerving.

And she'd always been one of those girly girls (I knew that from family photos I'd seen). So couple her princess obsession as a child with Fleur's emphasis on manners, and being ladylike, and Dom couldn't wait to go to a school for young ladies, which taught etiquette, and dancing, along with the usual subjects.

So Rose transferred. And I… don't think I'd seen her since. Actually, now I think about it, I don't think I've seen her at all since our first year. I'd never really thought about it, but she only came back to the country for the holidays, and I was always at my house during that time, or out spending time with Al.

Weird, I kind of wondered how she was getting on now that I thought about her.

Not that I cared. I just… wondered.

I don't think I'd even _thought_ about her since first year, so it was odd when this one time that I did think about her, Al brought her up."Rose is coming back to Hogwarts this year."

I groaned and rolled my eyes, unable not to do so, "Are you serious?" I complained. "Why?"

"Don't get too excited, mate," he joked, tossing another Bean into the pond. "She's coming because of loads of reasons: for one she decided there are far too many blond bimbos who don't give her much of a challenge in school, since she's ranked number one academically."

I snorted. _Of course his know it all of a cousin was number one, she hated being in second place_.

Al continued as if I hadn't snorted, probably trying to subtly tell me to let the animosity between us go. _Fat chance of that Al, she probably still hates my guts. No amount of fancy French society could change that. _"Secondly, she misses playing Quidditch-"

That caught me off guard.

_Rose? Playing Quidditch?_ I couldn't imagine that uncoordinated, stuck up girl even sitting on a broomstick. _She'd probably sit on it side-saddle or something._

"-because they don't have that at Beauxbatons, and she can only play during the holidays with our family. And, of course, she misses me _far _too much."

Raising one eyebrow, I glanced at my smirking mate.

"Might want to rethink that last one," I muttered darkly. Then I lobbed three Beans into the pond in a sudden burst of annoyance. "Of _course _she would be the smartest one at school - she _is _a know it all. And I'm pretty sure she must be awful at Quidditch, since they teach dancing and lame girl stuff at that French school."

Al snorted. "You should see her and Dominique when they come home for the holidays - sometimes they forget they're not being drilled into being ladylike 24/7, and they beg pardon to leave the room or something. It's hilarious."

I rolled my eyes at him. "So is Dominique coming back then?"

Al shook his head. "No, she's finishing her last year at Beauxbatons - it's too close to the end of her studies not to. Besides, she loves it there, whereas Rose is getting bored of all the restrictions, I think."

I sighed, then got to my feet. "I would have thought little Milky would have loved all the rules they had there?" I joked.

Surprisingly, Al shot me a glare as he got to his feet also. "Don't call her that," he sighed.

"Why not?"

"Because it's her first day back tomorrow, Scor," he pleaded. "Just… be nice, for once, yeah?"

I scoffed. "Me? She's the demon."

Al slapped me round the back of the head. "That's the type of thing I mean! Seriously, Scor, the past is the past, why can't you two let it go?"

"Hey," I held up my hands in defeat as we trudge back towards my house, shirts in hands because it was still too damn hot to put them on. "I'm all for making love, not war."

Al grimaced. "Okay, don't go that far," He warned. "Just… promise me you'll be nice?"

"I'll try," I mumbled. "But if she starts it…"

Al sighed wearily as he stopped walking, evidently preparing to apparate. "I guess that's the best I can hope for, right?"

I nodded, but then, just before he had the chance to apparate, I grabbed his arm, and grinned, "Tell Milky I said hi."

Al rolled his eyes, then disappeared.

Now that I was alone, I sighed.

Rose Weasley was just about the worst person I could imagine spending my last two years of Hogwarts with, but, being in the same house, and best friends with her cousin… something told me we'd be spending a lot of time together.

_Well, one thing's for sure - school was going to be a nightmare this year._

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><p><strong>Thank you for reading. This is the 'setting the scene' chapter, I hope you like it, and please take the time to leave me a review, it would be much appreciated. :D x<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you for your wonderful feedback, you guys. I'm going to reply to your reviews ASAP, I promise, you just all hit me at once and I've been super busy! (Not that that means I don't _want_ the reviews, of course! Oh, p.s. while I'm on the subject, speaksis2, if you're reading this, thank you so much for reviewing, not just only this but other fics of mine, but I can't message you as your PM is disabled. So I'll thank you here! :D)**

**I hope you all enjoy meeting Rose. :D Let me know what you think of her? And Scorpius isn't much of a jerk at the moment, nor do I think he's going to be as bad as I thought (as I re-wrote a couple of the later chapters). After all, we all love Scorpius too much to hate him even a little, right? :D**

**I hope you like this chapter:**

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><p>It may have been a futile wish, but by the next day, the heat wave hadn't disappeared. Platform Nine and Three-Quarters was packed full of people, the hyper kids running in circles and frantic animals combined with the steam from the train bringing about the sensation that I was going to burn alive at any second.<p>

Thanks to my mothers freakish ability to be anywhere at least twenty minutes early, we'd already said our goodbyes, and stood around for five minutes, before I had to remind my parents that I wasn't eleven anymore, and that they could leave. They both had meetings to get to anyway, and they were only going to miss me stepping from the platform onto the train. Hardly exciting.

Teary eyed and beginning to be guided back out of the station by my exasperated father, my mother had reminded me to write to her, as she did every year, and then they'd left.

Not two minutes later I'd spotted Al's freakishly messy bundle of hair bobbing through the crowds. I managed to haul my trunk in one hand, my fluffy, black cat Menace firmly wrapped in the other arm as she complained meekly at me at the way she was being manhandled, and forced my way through the people, navigated by the sound of Lily Potter's laugh alone.

By the time I had reached them, Ginny Potter was frantically searching through her daughters trunk for something. Harry stood beside her, evidently teasing his eldest son, James, who'd probably only come to tease Al, in turn, as he had finished Hogwarts the previous year.

"Bloody nightmare, that cat," Al grinned at me as I came into sight. Menace had begun meowing in frustration at not being allowed to move.

I sighed angrily at her. "Fine, go on then."

Putting her gently on the floor, she gave me one last look to show she wasn't pleased with the way I'd handled her, then sauntered off. I knew she wouldn't go far, so I let her disappear whenever she wanted. She just complained at me otherwise.

I rolled my eyes, then remembered that she had already disappeared through the smoke in the direction of the train. And that she was a cat.

"I guess it's practice for if I ever get married," I joked, addressing the way Menace liked to treat me like I was a bumbling husband who couldn't ever do anything right.

"Now, Scor," Al slapped his hands around my shoulders in a way that I knew meant he was about to tease me. "You'd actually have to find a girl you were willing to be with for more than three days for it to be considered practice."

"Or one that would be willing to be with _me_," I pointed out.

Al smirked at that, but didn't have time to reply because Ginny stood up at that moment, sighed irritably, and then told her daughter disapprovingly, "You must have left it in the car, Lily. We'd better go check."

"Don't be long-" Harry began, before she cut him off.

"Yes, I know, Harry," Ginny glared at her husband. "But one of us has to do something productive instead of putting our child on a train to a school for magical children without a wand."

And then her and Lily disappeared through the smoke.

Harry and I shared a _'What was that about?'_ look, making me feel included in the family for all of two seconds.

"Good luck with that, dad," Al told him, grinning.

"I'd better go help," He sighed, but didn't really look that fazed - nothing fazed Harry anymore. "We'll be back in time to say goodbye."

As he walked away I could have sworn I heard him muttering something about how his wife's fretting on the first day back to school reminded him more and more of Hermione every year.

I turned back to Al and James. "So where is everybody else?"

Al shrugged. "Hugo and Rose haven't arrived yet. As for the others - I think they're all on the train already. Molly and Lucy had a huge argument - everybody's trying to avoid them."

I grinned. Sometimes I wished for a big family, so I'd have _somebody_ to talk to about normal teenage stuff, somebody not Al, somebody who'd listen and not care if I said anything horrible, they'd just let me ramble and get everything out of my system. Of course, sometimes I do talk to Al about it, but… don't tell him I said this, but he's too sensitive - he begins to take things personally, or judge you if your comments are too harsh.

He's my best mate, but sometimes it bugs me.

But then, at times like this, when one thing gets blown out of proportion, or something personal becomes everyone's business, I feel relieved there's nobody to know.

"Hey Al, make sure you take somebody hot to graduation," James said, bringing me out of my reverie.

Al and I rolled our eyes together, before he turned to his brother, "I'm graduating _next _year, James. Don't you know how old I am?"

James faltered for a second. "Well yeah… _now _I do."

I tried to hide my grin, but I couldn't.

Al and James started to punch and poke each other - never having had a sibling I guessed they we're trying to annoy each other in oblivion - until James shouted suddenly, "Hey, I think I saw Marissa earlier: let's go tell her how much you _looove_ her, Alby."

And then suddenly I was left alone as Al chased after him.

"Great," I mumbled to myself sarcastically. "First my cat, then the Potters. Maybe I'm just destined to be alone."

"Well if you keep talking to yourself like that," I heard a musical voice say from behind me. "I wouldn't be surprised if people kept their distance."

I spun on my heels at the sound, and came face to face with a girl - no, a woman - I couldn't place for a moment: her summer dress flowed until only about mid-thigh, the silken deep blue fabric probably kept her cool in the heat; long legs with her feet strapped in casual black sandals; her deep red curls pinned back away from the left side of her face to probably stop the strands from falling into her eyes; her bright, welcoming smile with just a hint of teasing; and the unmistakeable milky skin.

Regardless, it was the eyes that caught my attention: deeper than I'd remembered, the blue so inviting like the ocean, yet with brown flecks decorating them subtly.

My cat, Menace, was in her arms, purring, and that was enough to bring me back to the conversation.

_Menace never likes anyone. Hell, she barely likes me sometimes._

"Bloody cat," I mumbled as she handed her over.

"I think she's adorable," That smile was back, so inviting.

"Yeah, so does _she_," I joked. "I think it's the fluffy black fur. My niece likes to brush her…"

Rose's lips broke out into a hug grin at that. "I don't remember you ever having a cat."

"I got her in third year, a present from Al, actually," I told her.

"Ah, there's your mistake," She whispered, leaning forward slightly as if we're sharing a secret. Her breath dangerously sweet, gentle. Like everything else about her. "You should _never_ let Al come up with gifts."

"At least they're imaginative," I suggested.

She laughed. "That may be his problem. He thinks too much."

She was definitely joking by now. We shared a look, one that felt too close for the actual nature of our relationship - barely acquaintances. We we're sharing our knowledge of how utterly _not _smart Al was, just as if we'd had this joke for years.

I slapped my forehead jokingly, as if I'd just had an epiphany. "Of course, that's why Al's failing his exams…"

She nodded as if she was agreeing, all the while trying not to laugh. "He thinks too much, that's all."

We tried not to laugh for the next three seconds, then Menace let out a frustrated meow from her position on my trunk, probably annoyed that I had been giving a different female more attention than her.

"What's her name?" Rose asked.

"Menace."

She raised her eyebrows, and that smirk returned, playing lightly at her lips. "Optimistic," She teased.

I rolled my eyes, for some reason knowing she would take it completely the right way. "Well, I'd say I'm not as imaginative as Al, but who is?"

As she laughed, carefree, Al returned, James nowhere in sight.

It took all of half a second for him to notice that Rose and I were standing together, not only in willing polite conversation, but actually sharing a joke.

"Rose!" He exclaimed, and then they shared a long hug, whilst I stood there feeling more than a little awkward. "How was Italy?"

"A complete bore - I don't know _why_ we decided to go there for the holiday," She told him dryly. Al's eye's went wide, as if in shock, evidently not getting the sarcasm.

Rose's eyebrows creased, and she looked to me to make sure that _somebody_ got the joke. Noticing that I was trying not to laugh, she shot me a grateful smile.

It made me feel butterflies.

Which is not good.

I'd been talking to her for all of five minutes and now I was confused. She was so… nice, collected, confident, independent, friendly, open, happy, easy to talk to. The complete _opposite_ of the Rose I knew and hated.

_Where had that gangly awkward know-it-all gone?_

Plus, butterflies are a girlish thing.

I don't think I'd ever heard one of my mates talk about a girl using that expression. They usually focus on physical appearance, and their personality. Not how they make them _feel._

I suppressed a shudder at the thought of having _that _conversation with anybody in my dorm. It would be beyond awkward. I don't know how girls do it.

Luckily Harry, Ginny, Lily and James reappeared at that exact moment. I sensed it was my moment to give them time to say goodbye as a family, so I made a hasty retreat, waving goodbye to the others and telling Al I'd meet him on the train in our usual compartment.

Rose followed me.

Menace disappeared again, probably to find the trolley lady to sweetly meow some food out of her.

We dragged our trunks side by side in silence, and I helped haul Rose's onto the train when he reached it.

I think it was the most gentlemanly thing I'd ever done.

At it was completely by reflex.

"Thank you," She smiled at me kindly. "They don't teach heavy lifting at Beauxbatons."

I laughed, because I had to. "It's more of a discus school, then?" I joked.

That time she laughed too. "That would certainly be an improvement on 'Study Morning'_."_

I gave her a _'What the hell is that?'_ look, which clearly conveyed my dislike of that idea ever being instilled at Hogwarts.

"Yep," She guessed my meaning right away. "I swear, half of me thinks I left Beauxbatons just so I could have a lie in on Saturday mornings."

"I bet you wouldn't have gone in the first place if you'd known you had to work on Saturdays," I said as we wandered down the corridor of the Hogwarts Express.

Then, I suddenly wished I hadn't said it. Because part of me thought that if I hadn't come between her and Al, she might have been less inclined to leave Hogwarts in the first place. It's a thought I'd never had until then - I mean, I never actually did anything to annoy or upset her, I just hated her.

And now here we were, getting on well. Better than her and Al did nowadays, maybe.

_Maybe I'm in a parallel universe._

"I'm glad I went," She continued. If she'd had any thoughts like mine, she'd brushed them off quickly so that it wasn't awkward. _How about that for etiquette? _"It's a brilliant school. And the people are lovely, and everybody's just so beautiful and well-groomed."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe I'll transfer next year."

She spluttered, trying not to choke, evidently completely unprepared to laugh, as I pulled back the door to the compartment that Al and I usually sat in.

"You don't mind if I sit with you, do you?" She asked. To be honest, I hadn't thought about it. I just assumed she would. But then again, why would I assume that? It would have been more likely that she'd want to sit with some of her girl cousins, not Al, me and some of our other mates.

"'Course not," I told her, as I leaned forwards to grab her trunk for her and took a step further into the compartment to let her pass me.

We we're greeted by 'hello's' from the two guys and the girl already sat down in the middle of the benches. Hamish and Maddie sat on the bench to our right, leaning forwards so that they could play a game of Exploding Snap with Oliver, Hamish's wand keeping the cards afloat in the space between them.

None of them had looked up. I finished stashing our trunks in the overhead hanger, and then gestured for Rose to follow me as I walked straight through the middle of their game and took a seat by the window on the left bench. Rose sat opposite me.

Just as I had planned, their cards tumbled to the floor, and they all finally looked up.

"What was that for?" Oliver scowled at me.

Then they all noticed Rose.

"Everybody, this is Rose," I told them, an odd feeling of pride coming over me. "Rose, this is Hamish, Maddie and Oliver."

"Rose!" Maddie suddenly squealed, practically jumping over Hamish as she climbed behind him over the bench. Hamish, ever the stoic, rolled his eyes and quietly glared. "Rose Weasley?"

Rose smiled wide, evidently not expecting anybody to remember her. "Maddie Finch?"

They hugged, whilst Oliver, Hamish and I shared a look which proved we thought it was weird. They hadn't spoken in five years, but yes, by all means, hug each other.

_Girls._

"As in Al's cousin, Rose Weasley?" Oliver asked, and I caught the interest behind his eyes.

"Yes," I snapped, "So don't go getting any ideas."

"Ideas? What ideas?"

Hamish snorted. "Any McLaggen ideas," He clarified.

Oliver pretend glared at us both for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders in acceptance of the summary of his character. I rolled my eyes as I turned to Rose.

"Ignore him," I told her. "If he tries to touch you up, just smack him as hard as you can."

She looked thoroughly unnerved by the idea of some guy trying to touch her up - joke or not - and I remembered (again, too late) that she'd been at an all girls school for five years. She's got guy cousins, but she's not used to the normal teenage guy stuff.

Luckily, she latched on to a joke, giving her enough time to steady her facial features. I didn't think the others noticed, but I did.

"Don't worry," She grinned at me. "I've got mean arm muscles. I've had plenty of discus practice, remember?"

We both grinned, until Al's arrival interrupted us.

Another member of our little group, Ruth, was bundled in his arms, having been carried over the threshold of the compartment by Al like it was their wedding night.

_Al wishes, _I thought to myself. _If only for the night_.

He's always found Ruth hot, but they would rip each other's throats out if they tried to date for longer than, oh, I don't know, twenty minutes. They might make it half an hour, tops.

"Does _nobody_ have control over this god forsaken creature?" She complained as Al unceremoniously dropped her onto the floor. "Scorpius?"

I shook my head as she stood up, brushing dirt off her shorts. "Ask Hamish."

"Ask Maddie."

"Ask Rose."

Ruth faltered at that, finally looking up at us all. "Who's-"

Then she caught sight of a now thoroughly nervous Rose, sitting in the corner. Rose gave a short, awkward wave. "Hi, I'm Al's cousin."

Ruth squinted at her for a moment, then muttered harshly. "I thought you were French."

"No, I just went to school there," To her credit, she hardly blinked at the rude reply.

"Then why are you here?"

"I go to school here now," Rose told her firmly, gaining some confidence now that she had clear questions to answer, not just awkward silence.

"Why?" Ruth asked abruptly as she threw herself onto the bench next to me, kicking off her shoes and placing her feet in my lap.

Rose eyed us for a moment, then stared defiantly right back at Ruth, something a lot of people don't do. "Why not?"

Ruth actually blinked at that.

I had to hand it to Rose, she was handling the situation (and by that I meant Ruth's rudeness) remarkably well.

Ruth considered the new girl for a moment, then shrugged like her brother had done earlier. "Welcome to Hogwarts then, I guess. I've never seen a sorting older than eleven, this'll be interesting."

"Rose was sorted when she came here in First Year, so she's not being sorted again," Al told everybody as Katie and Sam wandered in, hand in hand as always.

"Guess who has the best boyfriend ever?" Katie gushed as soon as the door was open.

"Guess who doesn't care," Ruth muttered under her breath.

I elbowed her. She stuck her tongue out at me. Al rolled his eyes at us. Katie ignored her.

"Who?" Even Maddie asked it in a rather bored voice, and Maddie was the nice one.

"Me!" Katie grinned, then proceeded to show her a necklace that Sam had bought her for their anniversary.

Katie and Sam are… inseparable. Maybe that word is used too often on couples, but they'd been together for four years now - that's longer than my parents were together before they got married - and they are hardly ever apart. Thankfully they're not the type of couple that only _ever_ hang out with each other, but because we're all friends anyway, they're always with us, and always with each other at the same time, so it was just a natural development.

Katie proceeded to ramble on to Maddie, until the whistle blew one final time and I felt the train jolt. And suddenly the platform disappeared, soon to be replaced by countryside.

Not long after the train had left London, Al and the others had started a 'My holiday was better than yours' competition. They did it every year and I enjoyed it, not least because I could sit back quietly and listen to them verbally abuse each other, or catch up on some sleep.

I was half dozing, my head lolling back against the wall, sort of staring out the window, but really sneaking glances up at Rose, who had started up a conversation with Katie. Whatever she had said to start the conversation (and it had been Rose who had voluntarily started it, which I admired her for), Katie was evidently extremely pleased.

_I think they are going to get on well._

I watched her gesture softly with her hands, smile brightly, nod encouragingly, and just generally carry herself well.

She was so well-presented and easy going; I couldn't stop watching her.

Ruth's voice and Oliver's exclamation of protest caught my attention, and we all turned to the verbal abuse conversation to hear who was losing this time.

As usual, it was Oliver.

"I'm not the one who hooked up with an old woman," Ruth shot towards her brother. A round of laughter roared out of the others as I smirked at Oliver.

He glared at his twin sister. "She was twenty five!"

"She was forty five with good bone structure," Ruth dead panned, to another round of laughter.

Oliver, knowing his sister's ability to relentlessly think up any number of witty comebacks, sulked into his seat.

As the others started to barter on how old the woman really was, Rose leaned towards me across the gap. Naturally, we leaned out heads close so that we could hear each other over the racket the others were making.

"Do I want to know the story behind that?" She mumbled, amused, as flicks of the ends of her curls brushed across my temple.

I shook my head - which didn't help my concentration - and grinned, "Definitely not."

"I'll trust your judgement," she smiled back.

We turned back to the conversation, and I caught Ruth, still with her feet in my lap, watching us, frown set in place.

I mouthed _'what?'_ and smirked at her, raising my eyebrows quizzically, to make her remember that she didn't own me.

Ruth was… complicated. Stubborn, harsh, macabre, and simply just unfriendly to anybody really. She had her pick of guys, and she was one hundred percent sure of herself.

She also had this thing about me. The guys teased me about her liking me (because, really, they weren't exactly going to tease _her_ about it, she'd probably put them in a coma or something), but I still refused to believe that there was anything like _feelings _between us. We'd hooked up a couple of times at the end of last year, but we'd agreed we didn't want a _relationship. _We didn't even have feelings for each other.

She still did odd things though, which made us look like a couple: putting her feet in my lap, stroking my arm when we spoke, wiping food off my face, etc… It unnerved me, and I'd tried asking her to stop multiple times, but she'd just rolled her eyes and snapped, "Stop being such a girl, Scorpius, it doesn't mean anything."

Oliver called her rude names a lot, for just generally being his sister, and as payback for her crudeness with him, but mostly for being openly affectionate with me all the time. At the moment, 'slag' was his favourite name for her.

She called him 'man-whore'.

It was an odd, and at first unnerving, sibling relationship.

I saw Rose watch them in interest for a moment, then her gaze flicked to catch me watching her, and she smiled.

"I don't think I'm going to get used to them," She mumbled. "I wouldn't ever call Hugo '_it'_, or address a fellow student as '_oi, you' _back at Beauxbatons."

I smiled back. "Trust me, I _would_ call my sister '_it'_, but even _I _still don't think I've gotten over Oliver and Ruth."

"I think Hogwarts is going to be a very enriching experience this year, isn't it?"

I caught her gaze again and felt a smile spreading across my lips before I could stop it. Her smile was so infectious.

_She was so unbelieveably pretty._

"Tell me about it," I mumbled to myself.

* * *

><p>The rest of the train ride was uneventful, and so was the carriage ride up to the castle.<p>

Rose lagged near the back of the group, quietly taking it all in. I watched her carefully to make sure she wasn't about to burst into tears and demand to go back to Beauxbatons, or freak out or anything.

Al, I think, had forgotten about her, so she was largely just experiencing this momentous occasion on her own, which I thought was wrong: it was an important step in her life, she shouldn't have to do it alone.

What warranted _my_ involvement, I wasn't sure, but, nevertheless, by the time we reached the Entrance Hall I had made my way to the back of our group of stragglers to join her.

"So tell me honestly," I broke her out of her daze. "Has _anything_ changed?"

She laughed a little, and her previously sombre expression became happy, which I took to be a good sign that she wasn't completely overwhelmed. "I think that bust of Nicholas Flammel had less chips in it."

"You know… I think you're right…"

"And there's a dent in the side of one of the carriages," She added.

"I think there's a piece of chewing gum on the floor that wasn't there last year," I added, trying not to smirk.

She elbowed me. "Now you're teasing me."

"Only a bit."

Before she had time to comment, and I had time to find out if she was anywhere near as good with comebacks as Ruth was, we walked into the Great Hall.

Rose came to a complete halt, staring up at the ceiling in surprise.

Al came and joined us then, as some of the others not in Gryffindor abandoned him to sit at their table.

"I forgot about the ceiling," She mumbled in fascination. "And the hall is much bigger than I remember."

"How does it compare to Beauxbatons?" Al asked, amused, as a group of third years stormed past us, almost knocking him over. We hurriedly made our way over to the Gryffindor table before we could get taken out by any more hordes of students.

"Well, it's completely freezing in here, there's cracks all over the place, cobwebs in every corner, about three quarters of the student body abusing the dress code, nobody seems to be following any sort of order or authority, you could cut the sexual frustration with a knife, and I'm being shoved back and forth like a tennis ball," she told us.

"So…"

I anticipated the grin before I saw it, because I was watching her eyes as she spoke, and they lit up mischievously.

"It's good to be back."

* * *

><p><strong>Hope you liked it. More to come soon! I might update regularly on a schedule (I've never<strong>** done that before. How is it in organised world, anybody? :D) so the next chapter might be up next week some time. Promise I won't keep you waiting for too long!**

**Let me know if you liked this, and Rose. Thank you for reading! :D**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello everybody! Thank you for your lovely reviews! I love hearing your ideas/thoughts - keep them coming! :D**** If I don't reply to your review before the next chapter is up, it's because I don't get a link (sometimes that happens even though you _are_ signed in, I'm not sure why)**** or because your PM is disabled. So I'm just going to take the time to thank everybody for reviewing! :D**

**Sorry this is a little later than I planned! I've had a hectic week! Hopefully I'll be able to stay on schedule in the next updates.  
><strong>

**Now here's an interesting question that my friend SabreDae asked: Do you think you'd prefer Hogwarts or Beauxbatons? I want to know what your answers are - personally I would love the lady-like side of Beauxbatons, but can you really beat Hogwarts? :D Let me know which one you'd like to go to, or if you'd find going to Beauxbatons interesting (In SabreDae's own words: "I is not lady like enough for Beauxbatons."** **LOL**)

**I hope you enjoy this chapter! :D**

* * *

><p>The first day of school is never a happy occasion.<p>

And when you're at a boarding school in which you haven't seen most of the guys who you room with for a whole two months, it's not exactly like I was going to get an early night or anything on the first night back.

As soon as we'd reached Gryffindor Tower, Al had smacked me on the back of the head and raced up the stairs, yelling, "Beat you there!"

I'd ignored him, rolled my eyes, and pointed Rose towards Maddie, who was busy being Prefect-y, so she had someone to stand around with and walk her to her new dorm. _Then_ I followed Al, found him sitting on top of a human sandwich made up of Hamish, Sam, Aaron and two guys named Leo and Calvin who looked related but weren't.

They were all bundled on top of _my_ bed, so naturally I'd had to join the bundle.

And we'd been messing around for most of the night, talking about summer and joking about girls, and once we'd turned the lights out, pulling pranks in the dark on each other. Hamish and I managed to get Al's duvet almost halfway across the room before he'd noticed it was missing.

They painted my ears red with some nail varnish - _Merlin_ knows where they found it.

Therefore, the next morning was not a fun one.

Breakfast woke me up though, and I was actually pretty awake by the time the girls traipsed down for food.

"But it's _never_ done that before," Maddie was saying, her voice full of amazement and adoration, as her and Rose took their seats opposite me. Maddie was gesturing to her hair, which was pulled back into a sleek ponytail. Considering the wild _mind-of-its-own_ quality her brown hair usually possessed, I guessed pretty quickly that Rose had helped her.

The others were all a complete mess like me; we sat around with our uniform half buttoned up and our hair all over the place.

Except Rose, who looked completely immaculate, hair swept back by a gold hair band, the loose curls tussling down her back until they reached her lower back.

I stared for a couple of minutes, chewing on the same piece of toast, until Al elbowed me.

"Guy code, dude," He reminded me loudly, unshamed that she'd hear. "Stop ogling my cousin."

Katie, Sam and Maddie were in conversation about their timetables, so it was just Hamish and Rose who heard: the former his natural expressionless self and ignored us, the latter tilted her head slightly, but didn't comment.

I rolled my eyes, and elbowed my best mate back. "I wasn't ogling her."

"Yeah you were," Al grinned.

"Trust me," I gave him an evil grin. "You'd _know _if I was ogling her."

Al looked aghast so, mission accomplished, I turned back to my breakfast, only to be faced with a disapproving look from the girl across the table.

"That's sexist."

"No it's not," I quirked an eyebrow and shook my head slightly. _Where had that serious expression come from?_ "It's being a teenager."

She gave me another long glare, then turned back to her egg, angrily attacking it with a knife.

Al leaned towards me on the bench as I watched her in surprise - I actually hadn't _meant _to annoy her this time, I thought we'd been getting on well since yesterday - and mumbled, "She's not used to it, Scor. Just let her have this one, yeah?"

I huffed. "Fine, but she's overreacting."

"I kn-"

"-No I'm not," Rose forced out through clenched teeth, flicking a page of the _Daily Prophet_ so hard that it ripped a little. "If I wanted to be around sexist, arrogant, frustrating _imbeciles_, I'd have stayed at Beauxbatons for the _Durmstrang Ball_!"

"Merlin," I gave her a second to catch her breath before I spoke. "High maintenance, or what?"

She glared at me with a look that could kill, and I found that eleven year old in her for a short second.

Then she let out a frustrated noise, and stood up, grabbing her bag, as McGonagall came into view behind her.

"Ahh, Mr Malfoy, I'm glad to see you've already finished eating-"

As Rose stood there, unsure whether or not it was acceptable for her to leave in the presence of a teacher without asking, I exchanged a sly, amused glance with Al at McGonagall's segue into the conversation. _I'd finished eating?_

_Well if McGonagall said I had, I guess that meant I had._

"-You have a free lesson this morning, is that correct?"

I swallowed the toast I'd been eating, and replied with a wary, "Yes, Professor..."

"Excellent. I want you to escort some Ministry officials round the castle. It shouldn't take long, an hour or two."

"Yes, Professor," I held back the sigh - no point in arguing with McGonagall.

"And Miss Weasley?"

"Yes, Professor?" She looked alarmed at the sudden change in attention.

"It would be best if you went too - I'm sure you'd want to refresh your memory on where everything is… and Merlin knows I cannot trust Mr Malfoy," She gave me a look a mixture of resignation and amusement that I'd usually get from my mother, then spun on her heels and left, telling me to hurry up because they were already waiting outside in the Entrance Hall.

I sighed, then hid my head in my hands, moaning, "I hate school."

Al just laughed. Rose sighed irritably.

"Come on, then, we'd better get going. I don't know about you, but I'd rather stay on McGonagall's good side."

For once, I agreed, so I grabbed my bag, we called goodbye to the others, and left Al to finish his breakfast.

_A morning with Rose Weasley? A Rose Weasley__ who had evidently decided this morning that she was going to revert back to annoying know-it-all?_

_Fun._

"I didn't know McGonagall _had _a good side," I mumbled jokingly as we neared the doors, trying to lighten the mood a little; partly so this morning wasn't so awkward if she was irrationally annoyed with me, partyl because I subconsciously knew I _wanted_ her to like me. _Oh Merlin._ "I'm always on the bad one. Did you know she specially created a 'Black List' because of me? Apparently the 'Red List' of students wasn't warning enough."

I chanced a glance at her, and she was trying to suppress a smile.

_Maybe we could still be friends._

"You're not going to irritate me _all_ day, are you?" She sighed.

"Probably," I grinned.

"Because if you keep cracking jokes I'm going to have to call a cease fire," She said it like it was a bad thing.

"Right…" I mumbled, confused. "A cease fire from what?"

"Us," She turned to me, gently placing her hand on my upper arm, of which I was immediately _very_ aware. "I didn't think we'd be as friendly to each other as we were yesterday, so I expected the arguing to start at some point today. But… if you keep being nice to me, we'll - Merlin forbid - actually become _friends_."

I nodded, taking in her words for a moment, then grinned. "Then… we'll be friends."

She gawped at me. "Just like that?"

I sense I might have been missing something, with the seriousness she was placing on this conversation. But no, she was just being a girl, and making things more important than they were. "Just like that," I nodded._ Honestly, what was the big deal?_

"Good," She suddenly grinned. "Because you're actually a nice guy, Scorpius."

"Not to mention witty, attractive, and intelligent?" I pressed.

She rolled her beautiful eyes and grinned. "Let's take it one thing at a time, shall we? How about a handshake?"

And she held out her hand, ever so proper.

I glanced at it, then up at her face, not even bothering to hide my amusement.

"What?" She asked, self conscious now.

"Here at Hogwarts we have our own code of etiquette, Rose," I smirked, and then I caught her in a surprise hug.

She squealed in alarm, but then hugged me back, laughing.

It was the worst moment - but I guess that's just my luck - but Ruth stumbled into the Hall just then, coming to a halt in front of us just by the doors. She considered us with a look of disgust on her face for all of three seconds.

"Well, isn't this cosy," She muttered dryly, stepping past us daintily and flicking her short blonde bob out of her face.

I exchanged a glance with Rose, and we grinned at each other and made our way into the Entrance Hall to meet the stuck-up Ministry officials.

* * *

><p>The tour was actually a lot of fun.<p>

Rose and I made it a game to see who could get away with the worst insult through a sarcastic comment: she was winning, but only just.

The officials, all six of them, had no idea what was going on when we lamented our holiday homes in Monaco or complemented the dinner we'd had with the Minister of Magic the other week.

"And this is the Muggle Studies classroom," Rose announced cheerfully, gesturing towards the door at the end of the Fifth floor corridor that we'd stopped outside. "Actually, we sometimes have Care of Magical Creatures in here, but that's only when the greenhouse floods… or freezes."

"And does that happen often?" A man in a red tie asked, interestedly.

"Erm, no," Rose took a stab at lying, trying to do the school a favour with the Ministry, no doubt. I wouldn't have caught on to that, but whatever. I probably would have just blurted out the truth: _'Yep, all the time'_. But Rose just _knew_ how to read a situation.

"Yes," I coughed from behind her.

The ministry man gave me a dirty look.

_Boredom and dirty looks? _I smirked. _Now _this_ felt like school._

"Only some winters, and the school are usually prepared for it," Rose continued.

The officials nodded and one asked her a question about something else. She replied enthusiastically, gesturing precisely with her hands, standing with perfect posture, being as friendly and welcoming as possible.

I went and stood against the wall a metre or so away, slumped against it with my head lolling on my shoulder, bag slung over the same shoulder and shirt pulled at a skewed angle.

I let Rose talk to them - she'd taken over about three minutes into the tour, because apparently I was '_hopelessly dull and uninformative'_ (her words, not mine).

She seemed to remember a lot, which just amazed me. Sometimes even _I_ didn't know what some of the classrooms were, and I'd been here six years already.

"Did you want to take a look inside?" She offered politely.

They agreed, so she opened the door and stood out of the way so that they could snoop around.

As they disappeared into the room, Rose turned to me and whispered teasingly, "Having fun?"

"Oh, I'm thrilled to be here," I muttered back dryly.

She grinned. "You could at least _pretend_ to be interested… or _interesting_."

"Ouch," I smirked back. "That was harsh."

"You've got to be cruel to be kind," She smiled sweetly, then spun back to the emerging officials before I could comment.

I stared after her in wonder for a moment, unable to tear my gaze away.

_That woman was going to be the death of me_. Through attraction or infuriation, I wasn't quite sure yet. We'd seemed to have both so far.

"And how are you finding Hogwarts, Mr Malfoy?" One of the older women suddenly addressed me.

I must have looked completely panicked, because she smiled reassuringly and Rose, from beside me, tried not to snicker.

"Oh, erm…" I creased my eyebrows, trying to come up with an answer as flawless as Rose would. "Er, it's good."

"That's nice," The woman smiled, obviously unimpressed but kind enough not to say it to my face, then continued scribbling something on her notepad.

I shot Rose an alarmed glance at the woman's actions.

She grinned and tried not to laugh again.

_Gee, thanks._

We continued down the corridor and took the next set of stairs leading down to the Fourth Floor. Rose pointed out the rooms as we passed and answered any questions easily.

I gaped after her, trailing behind, completely out of my depth.

_What was McGonagall thinking giving me this job? I would have been terrible at it on my own._

We stopped outside Flitwick's Charms classroom and we horded them in to talk to him for a bit. When we left again, the third years currently having their lesson smirking at us because of the job we'd landed ourselves in, one of the officials asked, "And what's in the door across the hall here?"

"Err…" I actually had no idea. I squinted at the woman, trying to think if I'd _ever_ seen or talked to anyone who'd been in there before.

"It's guidance counselling," Rose responded immediately.

That set them all off, and they began scribbling over their paper again.

I turned to her, confused.

"How'd you know that?"

She didn't even hesitate. "Says on the door, Scorpius."

"Oh."

_Yep, I felt like an imperceptive idiot._

Rose grinned at me and waltzed past to the head of the group and leading us all down the next flight of stairs.

I stared at her, as we followed.

It wasn't until the man with the red tie clapped his hand on my shoulder reassuringly and whispered, "I think she's a little out of your league, mate," that I realised I'd been checking her out unconsciously.

I appreciated somebody telling me I was being discourteous, but I didn't appreciate the insult all the same.

"_Thanks_," I mumbled sarcastically, shouldering my bag and moving further towards the back of the group.

The guy just chuckled good-naturedly.

* * *

><p>By the end of the tour, the officials looked thoroughly impressed with Hogwarts, with the standard of teaching and facilities, and with us, apparently.<p>

Rose and I hurried to Transfiguration, laughing our asses off at a comment one of them had made about the standard of uniform, and only just made it in time before the bell rang.

McGonagall gave us mildly disapproving looks.

Al leaned forward in his chair and spoke to me before I'd even had the chance to sit down.

"How'd it go?"

"It was a breeze, mate," I grinned.

Rose slapped me hard round the back of the head with a book she was taking out her bag from the desk behind me.

It was a hardback book.

I gave her a glare.

"_I_ did all the work," She protested.

"Hey!" I complained, then stage-whispered, leaning towards her, dangerously close across her desk (because I could). "You just ratted me out to Al!"

She smirked, and _damn did she not know how alluring that was? _"I know."

I gaped at her.

Al laughed.

Ruth glared from her seat beside Rose.

_Maybe Ruth was still a little touchy about the whole hook-up thing last year..._

I shook it off. That would just be complicated, if she was, and I didn't want to think about it. I didn't want complicated.

Nope, best to ignore it.

_It would go away on its own, right?_

McGonagall was walking round handed out textbooks and she interrupted our conversation then when she handed mine to me. She patted me reassuringly on the shoulder with a resigned look on her face.

"Never mind, Scorpius," She told me.

I glanced to my right at Al like _'What did I do this time?'_

Al just looked amused.

Rose leaned across the gap behind me between our desks and placed her lips dangerously close to my ear. I could feel the end of some of the tendrils of her soft hair tickle against my cheek.

"She disapproves of your uniform," Rose breathed, in that musical, damn sultry voice of hers.

And then she'd retreated back to her seat, leaving my back feeling unusually cold.

I glanced down at my uniform, and remembered that my top two buttons were undone, there was already a line of ink across the collar, and I'd left my tie back up in Gryffindor Tower.

_Oops_. _No wonder McGonagall thought I was a hopeless case - first day of school and I'd already disappointed her._

It felt odd disappointing McGonagall - kinda like she was the grandmother I never had, and disappointing her made me disappoint myself a little.

_A little._

I mean, I was still going to wear my uniform like this, wasn't I?

What?

She wasn't _actually _my grandmother, was she?

Exactly.

Her voice drew me out of my internal argument. Or more it was the name, but whatever; I'll kid myself otherwise.

"Rose Weasley, who you may remember from First Year, has decided to transfer back to Hogwarts this year," McGonagall was saying. I spun in my chair to see a very red-faced Rose trying not to blush (and failing) and trying to hide her face in her hair. Only her perfect posture prevented her from sinking into her seat. "Do you want to come up and re-introduce yourself, Rose?"

She obviously did _not, _but don't let McGonagall's asking fool you - it wasn't a question.

Rose stood up nervously, then I caught her take a deep breath as she passed me and made her stand at the front of the class next to McGonagall.

She looked completely confident and happy to be standing at the front of the class, she addressed everyone in a friendly manner and didn't look embarrassed at all (apart from the disappearing blush from her earlier surprise).

"Hello everyone," She smiled at the class. The three Hufflepuff guys behind me started mumbling and wolf whistling. "I'm Rose Weasley, I'm Al's cousin. I… yeah, I transferred back from Beauxbatons, and I don't think anybody really probably remembered me… I mean, I _hope_ you don't anyway," She joked.

People laughed, which was reassuring for her, and then she waved awkwardly and turned to McGonagall, who gave her a smile and a nod (I was slightly jealous at the treatment - _hey, McGonagall, why don't you ever smile at me encouragingly?_) and Rose hurried back to her seat, giving me an exasperated, relieved look.

I grinned at her, trying to hide my smile from anybody else.

Kevin, who was sitting behind Al to my right, muttered, "Hey, Al, is it alright if I ask your cousin out? She's hot."

I spun round in my chair as McGonagall gave Kevin a glare for interrupting what she was about to say, and Rose looked completely affronted.

"Hey, Kevin? Yeah, shut up, you tosspot," I snapped. "You might wanna be a bit less douchey about it, and maybe ask her herself? She is capable of speech, you know."

I spun back to face the front, insanely annoyed at his comment.

Not that Rose wasn't free to accept anybody she wanted -_ ignore the twinge in your stomach, Scorpius_ - or defend herself.

"That's ironic, coming from you," He mumbled to my back darkly. I resisted the urge to start an argument, or a fight, like I normally would, and let it pass.

Because it was true.

I did make comments like that. Not all the time, and not as a rule, but I did objectify girls, had been doing it for years. And I was proud of it.

Or had been.

Or was?

I really wasn't sure right now.

Because Rose Weasley's face kept swimming in front of my eyes, and I couldn't shake the feeling that she'd be more than disappointed if I acted like that.

_Oh Merlin, you really shouldn't care so much what she thinks, Scorpius._

But I did.

_Crap._

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you for reading! This is more of an interim chapter where we can see RoseScorpius' relationship a bit more, as there wasn't much of just them in the last chapter. I hope you enjoyed it? Please take the time to leave me a review, just so I know you're still reading and your thoughts/ideas on this and what you think is to come. :D**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey all. I'm so sorry about the delay on this - I've been so busy recently. And when I haven't been busy, I've been exhausted. Here's chapter 4. I hope you enjoy it and please give me some feedback. :)  
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**Enjoy!**

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><p>I had never, in a million years, imagined being friends with Rose Weasley.<p>

It would be impossible, ridiculous, insane. Completely far-fetched to even imagine it. We hated each other when we were First Years, and we were always arguing, or trying to hurt the others feelings.

But then again, that was when we were First Years.

And apparently they teach forgiveness at Beauxbatons.

Okay, so they don't _actually_ teach forgiveness, but you get what I mean.

Rose had let it go, the teasing (not that I did much of it, the majority had actually come from her), and hanging out with her for the first three weeks of term, being friendly and open and joking, had just made me feel like an idiot for dwelling on how much I had hated the eleven year old version of her for five whole years.

Thinking back, I had been such a drama queen when Al had told me about her returning.

Of _course _she had changed. It had been _five years_.

And the competition in class was so beyond welcome. We teased each other a lot about who had gotten the better mark in a test, or who could make the better potion. It was fun, actually.

I _loved_ teasing her.

Hey - _she_ loved teasing me, too.

Al called it flrting.

He wasn't particularly pleased about it, but didn't think it was serious.

We ignored him.

I thought Rose might have just detached from our group within the first week, and made new friends. And she did make new friends - loads - everybody took to her immediately, kind of like they did with Al, yet still she didn't leave. In fact, Katie, Sam, Oliver, Hamish and Maddie all declared how much they loved her within the first hour of potions on Tuesday morning in the first week of school. Bea, the quiet girl who had been best friends with Rose and Maddie as First Years and who I sometimes saw round school, reconnected with them, and joined our group also.

To be honest, I was half inclined to believe that it was more because of her crush on Hamish than her friendship with them, but it was a close call.

So the nine of us began to hang out in the Gryffindor Common Room frequently - sometimes with Aaron, who roomed with Al and us - until it was _every _evening (yeah, some of us weren't Gryffindor, but nobody cared).

Except Ruth.

It quickly became apparent that she wasn't Rose's biggest fan. Which was ridiculous, because most of the time Rose was the only person who found her jokes or harsh comments funny. Plus, they both loved the Chudley Cannons, and they were both avid Quidditch players.

And, yes, I did see Rose play on the first Saturday back at Hogwarts during tryouts, and even _I _had to admit she was good.

No, she didn't ride side saddle.

Trust me, I'd taken a few bludgers to the head that day because I was concentrating on our new Keeper instead of the game.

One evening, when we were all lounging about by the fire in the Gryffindor Common Room, it was well past midnight, and we were the only ones up (and making rather a lot of noise at times, which I sort of felt bad about), Rose and I were having a debate about how good a Quidditch player Ginny Potter was (Al stubbornly refused to join in), when she got so frustrated, in an amused sort of way, that she shoved me playfully.

We were sitting on the floor, our backs against the sofa where Al, Bea, Hamish and Ruth sat, with Katie and Sam crammed into one armchair and Oliver in the other doing an essay for the next day. Needless to say, I wasn't expecting the playful shove, and I went toppling over, landing with my left cheek on the carpet.

I sat up, smirked evilly at her as the others laughed and warned her to run, before I tackled her over.

After all, nobody teases Scorpius Malfoy and gets away with it.

She laughed and shrieked as I pinned her to the floor and tickled her.

"Take it back, Milky," I said.

"Never," She giggled through her laughter. "And don't call me Milky, I hate it."

"What? Why would you hate that? It's a brilliant nickname," I asked, pretending to be affronted as I halted in my tickling.

"It's terrible," She insisted. So I tickled her some more, until she gave up and I got permission to use the nickname.

Then I awkwardly got up when Al pointed out that I was still straddling his cousin, trying not to blush because that would just be embarrassing.

Which was stupid, because I wasn't exactly inexperienced with girls.

Although, I hadn't even kissed a girl since term had started, which _was_ starting to come to Al's attention. I mean, I wasn't usually that slow to set my sights on someone.

I sincerely hoped he didn't bring it up.

What would I say? _'Oh, yeah, that's because I fancy your cousin, so, err, I'm just going to swear off all other girls for a stupid crush. Can you not mention it? Thanks._'

Yeah, Al wouldn't take kindly to that.

Nor would he believe me.

I had never sworn off girls for more than a week.

"I don't see why you _have_ to give her a nickname anyway," Ruth sighed in a bored voice from her position on the sofa, stubbornly perusing her nails as she let out noises that I guessed were meant to show her disgust and impatience with our flirting, "Nobody else has a nickname."

I rolled my eyes. "It's just a bit of fun, Ruth, _Merlin_. Do you even know how to have a little fun?"

"A lot actually," She said in a monotone voice, raising her eyebrows at me. "If you recall."

I swallowed and sat back down, relieved Oliver started a conversation about magically enhanced balloon animals.

Because, yes, drunk or not, I definitely remembered us getting together last year.

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><p>The downside of staying up late to hang out, even if it was a Friday night, meant that we had to sneak the others back to their dorms without getting caught by the teachers or worse, Peeves: detention was one thing, being splattered with paint and harassed by limericks was another.<p>

Even though Hamish was in Slytherin with Ruth, he'd volunteered to take a detour to walk the two Ravenclaw's back to their dormitory.

I had a feeling the kindness was more to do with Bea, rather than Oliver. I went with him, because Al didn't trust anybody else with his invisibility cloak or the Marauders Map and he couldn't be bothered to go himself, and because I had enough tact (yes, I did) to distract Oliver so that Hamish could have some time to talk to Bea alone. Merlin knows they needed it - it was pretty obvious they liked each other, but Bea was a shy girl, and Hamish had that stoic Mr. Darcy mannerism going for him. They weren't going to get anywhere without a bit of a push.

By the time I returned to Gryffindor tower, everybody else had gone to bed, only the fire was on and everything had been tidied away.

I turned towards the stairs to head to bed, and that's when I caught sight of Ruth.

She was standing by the stairwell, arms crossed, grinning seductively at me.

I knew this was not going to end well.

Yeah, we'd hooked up a couple of times last year, but I didn't think we'd _continue_ to hook up.

But I didn't want to hurt her feelings, and I _was_ just a guy after all, so it wasn't like I was complaining. As long as she knew it was casual, then I was fine with it.

"Scorpius," She greeted me calmly.

"Ruth," I replied, smirking, as I came to stand in front of her. She flicked her hair out of her eyes as she did often, her sweeping blonde fringe constantly working its way into her eyes. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

She rolled her eyes. "I was thinking…"

"Oh dear."

"At least it wasn't you, sweet-cheeks," She snapped. "Merlin knows you're head would explode. Anyway, as I was saying, I was thinking about what you said earlier… about having fun…"

She took a step forwards, which was unfortunate, because there was only half a step between us.

"Ruth," I sighed, "I don't think that…"

_-This is a good idea. I don't like you like that. You know I'll hurt you. You know this doesn't mean anything. We should stop before either of us gets hurt_. _I have feelings for someone else._

Unfortunately, thinking these things is as far as I got. After all, I'm not the most faithful guy at Hogwarts (before you judge me, I'm not the _least_ faithful guy either - I don't give myself the chance to cheat on girls anyway as I'm never in a relationship long enough, and that suits me fine), and if a hot girl (because bitch or not, Ruth was hot) throws herself at me with no-strings-attached, I'm not exactly going to say no, am I?

I knew it was wrong to kiss her back, let alone go any further than that, because as much as I told her that I didn't like her as anything other than a _'mistress'_, as she'd dubbed herself, some part of me (the part which I shamelessly pushed back every time it reared it's ugly head) knew she'd get hurt.

But I did it anyway.

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><p>In the morning I felt guilty, but Ruth just collected her things, rolled her eyes at me, and complained while getting dressed, "I want breakfast."<p>

So I went along with it, and didn't say anything.

On the way down to breakfast I finally managed to mutter out, "Ruth, you know that was just… a one time thing, right?"

She raised her eyebrows at me, but otherwise didn't even react. "Of course it was. Don't go getting all emotional and touchy-feely on me, Scorpius," She snapped.

"I'm not," I defended myself. "I just… wanted to clear that up. "Okay?"

She didn't reply for a moment, and when she did it was only to comment haughtily, "I hope there's bacon."

And we both continued not to mention it in the weeks to come. Everything continued as normal, everybody hung out at Gryffindor Tower, and occasionally Ruth would be waiting for me when I got back from helping the others sneak to their dorms (Al was too lazy to ever help himself).

I never sought her out, though.

If she noticed, she didn't mention it.

But why would she?

Like _she'd_ said, it didn't mean anything.

_Eurgh._

It was confusing enough, trying not to hurt a girl you did honestly care about as a friend, but knowing you probably were going to end up hurting her anyway and being too selfish to stop. But to add to everything, I found myself hanging out with Rose much more than anybody else, partly because she was in more of my classes than the others, and partly because we both took advanced Ancient Runes and Transfiguration, so we spent most early evenings together in the library getting extra work done.

Add to that the fact that Al had roped me into being his wingman for a party or two in the first month of October, and what else was there to do but make out with girls?

I had a reputation to uphold, after all, and if I thought Rose would actually _ever_ like me in the same way I was starting to feel about her, I was deluded.

She was _much_ too good for me.

_Fine. Yes_, I had a thing for her.

And _no_, it wasn't just a physical thing.

And _no,_ I wasn't going to admit it to anyone. _That would just be embarrassing._

So I covered it up by being a complete man-whore.

_I was a terrible person. I know._

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><p><strong>Thank you for reading. Please don't hate me, you avid ScoRose shippers! I <em>am<em> one of you! I promise! I wanted to write something different, and _this_ is the Scorpius for this story. I hope you stick with it. Thank you so much for reading! Please review to let me know what you think?**

**I'll try not to give you too much of a break before the next chapter (because the next one has much more ScoRose in it. :D)  
><strong>

**Thank you! x**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey everyone! Thank you all for your wonderful reviews. I love hearing your opinions. I apologise for any grammar mistakes - I do check and I am quite pernickety about grammar, but sometimes I miss things. I hope you don't mind too much.**

**This chaper isn't as long as I'd like it to be, but I quite like it. I hope you enjoy it, and let me know your thoughts again?**

**Lastly, I really want to thank Abby - as you don't have an account I can't reply to your amazing review(s) - thank you so so much! I'm glad you like my writing.**

**I hope you all enjoy this chapter - some ScoRose for you.  
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><p>One evening in late October I found Rose sitting at a corner table in the library, surrounded by an obscenely large number of books, my cat Menace (the bloody traitor) in her lap.<p>

"I see I've been replaced," I sighed as I took the seat beside them.

Rose glanced up from her work, her posture never less than perfect, her eyelashes rising in a perfect sweep, and her captivating eyes latching on to mine immediately. She smiled, and it was innocently enticing.

And the confusion came back.

_Merlin, she was beautiful_.

_Man up, Scorpius._

"Thank Merlin you're here," She gently grabbed my arm and pulled me into her personal space, pointing towards the pages of a large book in front of her on the desk. "What, in the name of Dumbledore, is this paragraph talking about? I've gone over it a hundred times, and it just makes my head hurt."

Taken aback at the proximity, and the sudden question, I opted for the easy answer. No answer.

I forced myself to pull back and sit in the seat beside hers, but pulled it close on pretence of looking at the book. "I think you need a break," I told her truthfully. "How long have you been working at this for?"

"About two hours," She sighed.

"Two hours?" I stared at her with wide eyes. "Rose, you're already one of the best in the year - even if I'm still going beat you - give yourself a break or you'll burn out."

She sighed, smiled, and closed the book with a muffled bang.

Menace opened one eye at the noise, saw me, and promptly got up to sit on my lap instead.

"I suppose you're right," She pulled her legs up under her and leaned on the back of her chair, her knee-length dress, the epitome of her ever-so-sophisticated fashion sense, draping elegantly around her. I don't know how she looked so flawless all the time.

I was a bloody mess in comparison.

"So how is it going at Hogwarts anyway?" I asked, dumping my bag on the floor. "Missing Beauxbatons?"

"Not really," She said, brushing a loose curl off her neck that had escaped the elegant bun. "I miss Dominique sometimes, but we started to argue a lot last year, so I don't really mind. I guess it just proves that absence does make the heart grow fonder, and we could do with a bit of that at the moment."

I smiled. "Well, I'm glad you're liking it."

"There's just one thing…"

"Hmm?" I glanced up from stroking Menace to see her nervously biting her lip (which didn't exactly help my confusing feelings for her).

"Well… are you dating Ruth?" She burst out, to my surprise. She gave me a '_sorry, I had to ask'_ look, then hurried on when I just stared at her in surprise. Whatever she was about to say, I wasn't expecting _that_. "Because you guys seem like a couple, sort of, well… _she_ seems like you're in a relationship, but then you freeze up all the time, and… and I didn't think you were _together _together… unless you are, of course, because I wouldn't know, I suppose… I just… oh Merlin, I'm rambling now aren't I?"

She bit her lip again, eyebrows raised in anticipation of my answer.

Menace meowed at me, as I'd stopped stroking her. I resumed the action to stop her fussing, and tried to answer Rose without blowing things out of proportion. After all, I don't know _what_ Ruth and I were, but we definitely weren't _dating_. "No, I'm not dating Ruth… I- We're just friends."

_It was the truth, really._

"Just friends?" Rose repeated.

I nodded. "Yeah."

"So you're not…"

"No," I said firmly. "Definitely not."

I knew it would later come back to haunt me.

"Okay, just… wondering," She tried to turn back to her book, and I caught the slight tinge to her cheeks. Now that the surprise of the question was dissipating, I was back to my natural response: teasing.

"Why? Would you have been jealous?" I waggled my eyebrows suggestively.

She blushed, her skin going a delicious shade of her deep red hair, and then, like a true pro, caught her composure and sat up a little straighter (if it was possible). "No, I was just curious."

"Sure…" I drawled, smirking and leaning back in my seat.

She rolled her eyes. "Would _you_ have been jealous if it had been me?" She asked outright.

That's one of the things I really liked about Rose - she knew when to be straightforward or tactful, and she kept things interesting, kept you equals in the conversation, by throwing things back at you. A lot of girls just... blushed and mumbled, or laughed and didn't respond.

"Would I have been jealous if you were hooking up with Ruth?" I asked, smirking again because I had to - she'd given me the opening for that one. I hurried to finish my sentence before she could open her mouth to refute the question, or tell me I had a dirty mind. She had just enough time to roll her eyes again. "_Au contraire_, I would be more than supportive, Milky…"

And yes, she caught on to the suggestive tone straight away. And she slapped me playfully for it whilst laughing.

"You're terrible," She told me, grinning.

"You're pretty," I shot back, charm smile in place.

"You're shameless."

"You're pretty."

"You already used that one," But she wasn't complaining.

"It's still true," I pointed out. When she rolled her eyes again, I had to comment. "You know, you're going to get dizzy if you keep doing that."

"I guess I wasn't prepared for all the dizziness I would encounter when I decided to transfer," She grinned. "Or all the annoying students."

I let that last one slide, but still smirked at it.

Then I remembered something I had been meaning to ask her for a week or two, but kept forgetting. She saw my expression suddenly sober up and looked worried.

"Can I ask you something?" I asked softly.

"Okay," She responded immediately. I guess she knew being serious was a rarety for me.

"And you'll answer truthfully?" I checked.

"Of course," She only hesitated a second.

"Why… What made you transfer?" I saw her open her mouth and then immediately continued with, "Well, apart from the obvious stuff, you know. I mean, the reasons you gave make sense, I just… there's always a trigger, isn't there? And I just… wondered what that was… for you?"

She swallowed, and glanced down at her hands on the table between us.

_Well done, Scorpius. Shouldn't have asked.  
><em>

"You don't have to answer that," I broke the silence. "Don't worry, pretend I didn't ask."

It was so unlike me to give someone a way out, but I suppose I could be a nice guy sometimes.

She looked up, a little surprised, and said, "No. No, I'll answer it… I… can you keep a secret?"

She blinked, and I couldn't tear my eyes away from her soft skin, her gentle eyes. "Yeah, of course."

"I… felt self-conscious at Beauxbatons. I have done forever. I loved the outfits and the lady-like traditions they had, but… everybody there was so much more flawless than me. I mean, they were either half Veela or a quarter Veela or had _some_ Veela blood in them and I just… I looked at them every day for five years and compared myself. It gets tiring," She whispered, as if it had cost her a great deal to admit that. It probably had, and I realised that I probably liked her a little more than I usually liked someone, for trusting me with her secret. "It just makes you bitter and vain and worry that you aren't good enough. So with everything else, I decided to transfer."

I nodded and didn't really know how to respond. She'd just shared a huge secret and trusted me with it. How do you respond to that?

I had an epiphany - as dramatic as that sounded.

She was avoiding my eyes, nervous, waiting for my answer, probably expecting me to say that was a ridiculous reason, a ridiculous secret.

So I did the opposite.

_I was full of surprises, wasn't I?  
><em>

"I hate my grandfather," I whispered, but it was firm enough for her to have no doubt about what I'd said.

She snapped her head round to face me immediately, a hundred questions burning in her eyes.

"I know I should love him," I elaborated. "I _know_ he did some terrible things, some that were his fault and a lot that weren't. And I _know_ that family is family, you should at least love them for that. But… I just don't. I've tried, and I can't. I hate him, Rose. I really do. I hate everything he did during the war, and I hate who he is now. We say he's not the same man nowadays, but… I don't believe it. Sometimes I catch a look and I just _know_ he hasn't changed a bit, and I worry that maybe _I_ won't change. Maybe _I'll_ inherit that… haughty manner and be lonely and bitter and horrible just like him. I hate him for it."

I'd clenched my hands up into fists as they rested on my thighs, so she moved her own off the table and covered them over mine, breathing deeply as my anger evaporated. I released the fists immediately.

"That's okay," She told me softly. "I won't tell anyone. Thank you, for asking, and listening to me too. I hadn't told anyone before."

I smiled back weakly. "Right back at you."

A loud bang ripped us out of our daze from a couple of shelves over. A student was cursing under their breath, and then Madame Pince was suddenly yelling insults at them.

I shuffled back in my seat and tried to focus on something on level ground. Something easy to talk about.

"So, has anything surprised you yet?" I asked.

She leaned forwards as if contemplating something, and then stared at me for a moment, a long moment in which I got to look straight at her fascinating eyes without it being weird. The brown flecks were just as intriguing as always. "_You _have."

I blinked, and leaned forwards too - so much for getting distance. "Me?" I grinned cheekily.

"To be honest," She sighed. "I thought you hated me."

I blinked. "To be honest, I did," I told her truthfully.

"Oh," was all she could think of to answer. I didn't blame her.

"But you hated me too," I pointed out. No point pretending we didn't. Might as well get it out in the open.

Her lips twitched slightly. "Only a little."

"And now?" I asked, suddenly aware that the library was eerily quiet, and we were unnaturally close _again_.

"Now…" She leaned forward ever so slightly, enough of a tilt on her posture for me to know that it wasn't an accident.

I swallowed as her eyes darted to glance at my lips.

_Just kiss her, Scorpius. What's the worst that could happen_? _Do it. You obviously like her._

Then Menace meowed, and we both blinked out of the moment.

Rose took her escape. "_Now_," she repeated, laughing quietly. "I have to go for a Quidditch meeting."

She collected her bag and broomstick from under the table and waved goodbye as she headed towards the library exit.

Just before she rounded the bookcases and was hidden from sight, I called back playfully, "Cop out!"

I heard that musical laughter as she left, and I couldn't decide if I was glad nothing had happened, or annoyed.

_Your life just got a whole lot more confusing, Scor._

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><p><strong>So... yeah. I hope you at least liked it a little. Thank you for reading, and still sticking with this story. I'd love a review? As always. Lol. They really do help though. Thank you!<strong>


	6. Chapter 6

**Firstly, I really want to apologise for how long this hastaken me to update. I think this chapter is going to divide a lot of you, but I hope you all still enjoy the story. :D Thank you for still reading this if you're here and for putting up with my mini-hiatus recently.  
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**I hesitated posting this chapter because I knew that a number of you may not like where the plot of this is going, as it's not what you expected. Not that it's anything crazy or weird or anything. I promise, lol. :D Either way, I hope you read it, do enjoy it, and want to stick with this story.**

**Thank you for reaching 100 reviews in 5 chapters! You guys are amazing! :D**

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><p>Despite the infamous <em>'almost kissed your best friend's closest cousin and ex-enemy', <em>things weren't weird between Rose and I.

I guess because we'd been flirting consistently ever since we met at the Platform in September, so what would be the point in changing that? Besides, I was pretty sure I couldn't convince myself _I_ didn't care about her like that, anyway.

It wasn't really efffective, and nor was tryingto convince myself that she didn't like me like that either. Every now and then, when the group of us were sitting in the Great Hall for lunch, or in the Common Room in the evenings, and Ruth would put her feet in my lap again, or lay her head on my shoulder, I would sense Rose watching us.

One part of me was a tiny bit pleased with it - I had more than my fair share of experience of girls, and I knew the action straight away. She was at least a tiny bit jealous. Maybe more because she wanted a boyfriend and not because she wanted to be with _me_ (even if I told myself that was what it was for my ego), but it was still there, that hint of interest, of puzzlement, of jealousy.

On the other hand, I was unnerved by Rose watching us. Nobody else batted an eyelid. Oliver hadn't punched me yet (as I knew he would if he ever found out I was sleeping with his sister), Al just took it as the usual because she'd always been like that even before we hooked up, and the others just ignored it completely, probably believing there was no way in hell that I would be in an actual relationship, especially with Ruth.

Which was why Rose's interest unnerved me - if she found out, how would she react? Would she be jealous? Would she tell people? Would she keep it a secret? Would she disapprove?

It just hurt my head to think about.

_Girls._

Especially because I'd told her outright that there was nothing going on between Ruth and I (remember how that was supposed to simplify things? Yeah…)

So Rose and I flirted a lot still, and hung out a lot.

From my point of view, Ruth and I _weren't_ a thing, so why couldn't I flirt with Rose? I flirted with other girls last year when we hooked up. Hell, I even flirt with Al sometimes.

We hung out so much (at times if I wasn't hanging out with Rose, I was hooking up with Ruth, which didn't help matters) that by December the 18th, the last day of term and a Hogsmeade trip, Rose and I were really close. Even _Hamish_ had voluntarily opened his mouh and graced us with words to comment on it one lunchtime.

There was no _'should I ask Rose to go to Hogsmeade with me or would that be construed as a date? And if it was should I refute it and friend-zone myself forever or agree and potentially make things awkward if she declined?'. _I was beginning to feel like my sister, over analysing relationships and caring _way_ too much, but hey - can you blame me? I'd never actually _liked_ a girl that much before. This was all new to me.

Anyway, back to Hogsmeade.

The ten of us, including Aaron who tagged along, all went together.

None of us minded - he was a nice guy: funny and always willing to help. He kind of looked like he could be related to Hamish, because they both had the same skin and hair colour, but they were opposites in most things - Hamish was quiet and aloof, Aaron was excitable and hilarious.

The walk to Hogsmeade was through rather thick snow which came up to halfway up our shins, so we had a lot of fun just getting to the damn place. Al pushed me into the snow, I pushed Oliver, Oliver literally shoved Ruth, Ruth forced him over, he learnt his lesson and pushed Bea instead, Bea push Hamish, Hamish glared at us all.

By the time we reached the Three Broomsticks, shivering but laughing nonetheless, we all had snow in the most creative places.

"If you didn't have him wrapped around your little finger…" Al warned Katie as her boyfriend carried her over the threshold of the pub like a new bride. "He would totally have dropped you straight into the snow like that."

"But he _is_ wrapped around my little finger," Katie grinned, to much laugher, as Sam nodded in reluctant agreement.

Half the place was full of Hogwarts students, so we found a table in the corner and all managed to squash into the booths once we'd bustled about to take off our coats, scarves, hats, ear muffs and gloves.

We ordered butterbeers, and Rose ordered some warm drink I'd never heard of but which they used to drink in France and I tried it. It was nice, but nothing compares to butterbeer. Al told some lame jokes, Hamish actually cracked a smile, and Oliver offered to pay for his sisters drink (to which she'd replied with a curt, "I'd rather you pissed off and left me alone").

We sat there for an hour, and all the while I was aware of Ruth's icy gaze glaring daggers at Rose and I, who had ended up sitting squashed side by side. I managed to convince myself that it didn't mean she had feelings for me, because she also glared at Oliver and Maddie half the time, for some reason.

Al kept giving me funny looks. I guessed it was because of how much I was flirting with his cousin, who he'd assumed I hated not four months ago. He was also a little touchy about that fact that we'd become close friends.

"Was this your card?" Katie giggled as she attempted to show us all a muggle card trick.

"No," Hamish intoned from the other side of the table, looking completely bored.

"It was the six of hearts," Bea burst out with. Hamish rolled his eyes at her, but his lips twitched in lazy amusement.

She was good for him: she made him lighten up.

"So… it's in his pocket then?" Katie asked, trying to be as aloof as possible, and Hamish - doing something rare for him and registering an emotion, surprise - dove his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out the six of hearts, much to everyone's surprise. Even Ruth looked mildly impressed.

"Rosie, you show us one, you must have loads of muggle tricks," Katie pleaded, suddenly turning the attention to Rose.

She stuttered in surprise. "Go on, Milky," I pressed. Then, when she still looked hesitant, I stage whispered, "Don't cop out again."

She couldn't help laughing, even though she tried to hide it.

The others were all more than a little confused at the private joke.

_Wait. Since when did we have private jokes?_

_Oh, screw it, we had loads now. No use pretending otherwise._

Before Rose could even move to start a magic trick, or anyone could comment on the joke, Maddie suddenly pointed out to us all, "It's gone two o'clock, by the way. If you want to hit the shops for Christmas shopping we better go now."

We all agreed without hesitation and put our many layers of winter wear back on, paid for the drinks and then made our way out into the freezing snow.

"Kates and I promised to stop by my mums house," Sam said, slinging his arm around his girlfriends shoulder. "Anybody want to come?"

We all declined. His mum was nice, but… she could talk for hours, and we all had last minute Christmas shopping to do.

"Heading to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, any takers?" Al asked gleefully. Bea, Maddie and Hamish agreed and they all headed off to the right.

"I bet you ten galleons that I can get your Uncle to crack a smile," I heard Aaron bet Al as they disappeared through the snow.

Oliver, Ruth, Rose and I started ambling in the opposite direction.

"Oh _Merlin_," Oliver suddenly stopped in his tracks, causing us to do so too. He turned to his sister. "We were supposed to go pick up that altered ironing board we bought for mum from Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment."

Ruth sighed irritably. "Great, maybe we can stick needles in our eyes too."

Oliver, knowing his sister, just grabbed her hand and hauled her back in the direction of Zonko's, leaving Rose and I alone.

We turned to face each other at the same moment. I grinned, she rolled her eyes.

"Where to, my lady?" I asked with a smile.

"Tomes and Scrolls?"

"Tomes and Scrolls, it is," I nodded, looping my arm and offering it to her. She accepted, wrapping her arm through mine and we struggled down the round as if we were in that Jane Austen novel she'd been obsessed with recently (or we would have done, if it hadn't been for the snow).

The old bookshop was cosy and musty and smelled of old books, which I loved. Rose did too, apparently.

The bell above the door chimed as we entered and the old man behind the counter looked up from his crossword to give us a huge smile. "Merry Christmas and welcome to Tomes. Anything particular you're looking for, young 'uns?"

"Just… browsing," Rose told him, a little taken aback by the friendly welcome. The man nodded, then went back to his crossword, and we moved across the room to the first shelf of books.

"Are you looking for something in particular?" I whispered, stepping right up beside Rose and dipping my head a little to whisper gently in her ear because it seemed wrong to talk loudly in such a quiet room.

I pretended not to notice when she shivered slightly at the close contact. "Something… educational, for my mother."

"Historical?" I know it was daring, but I brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes affectionately. Rose simply nodded and tried not to hyperventilate. I tried not to smirk at that, I really did. "Try down there, three shelves from the end."

I pointed down the aisle adjacent to ours, and she took the opportunity to put some distance between us, gulping as she hurried off. I followed slowly, and by the time I reached her she was engrossed in a number of books on the shelf second from the bottom. Because it was so low, she was bending over to read all the titles, and I almost had a heart attack when I rounded the corner. Once I recovered, I took the opportunity to check her out.

Hey, don't judge me. I already knew she was beautiful, wonderful, caring, funny. Now I wanted to know if she was hot. And she was.

The shop keeper coughed pointedly, bringing me out of my daze, but he looked amused.

"Did you have to ruin it?" I half joked as Rose turned round and cottoned on immediately to the situation.

"Just tryin' to help out the lady," He smiled.

"Thank you," Rose told him as she stepped past me and towards the counter, placing a book on it and giving me a pleased, slightly seductive grin.

She paid for her book, and we headed back out into the snow and wind, deciding to make our way towards Weasley's Wizard Wheezes to meet up with the others.

The wind had picked up so much that I walked with my arms over her shoulders, her being the perfect height for it to be comfortable, my gloved hands touching hers. We must have looked like a couple, but I didn't care.

I actually kind of liked the idea of that.

Which was very strange of me, because I hadn't had the desire to be in an actual relationship since third year.

And _that_ relationship had lasted less time than the train journey.

Halfway down the street, Rose slowed our pace, and began a tentative conversation.

"Scorpius?"

"Mmm?"

"Have you ever… had the desire to… you know, have a… a girlfriend? Like, for more than… three days, I mean?"

I could practically feel her holding her breath.

But her question was an interesting one, especially given where my train of thought had just been going.

_But dedicating yourself to be one hundred percent with someone was different from _liking_ someone. No matter how much I liked Rose, would I really trust myself to promise her a relationship?_

_Knowing me, I'd screw it up. I always did.  
><em>

Like always, I tried to answer her truthfully. "Not until recently."

"Define recently," She hurried to ask.

"Let's just say _very_ recently, shall we, Milky?" I teased softly.

"Okay…" She replied slowly. "So… if you… you know, were looking for a girlfriend… theoretically… what would - theoretically - this hypothetical girlfriend… maybe… be like… look like?" She trailed off.

I chuckled low in her ear. "Very eloquent."

"Shut up," She elbowed me playfully in the ribs and we came to a natural stop outside a shop. "I'm not… used to this."

"To this?"

"To guys… to talking to them," She clarified as she spun in my arms, mine still resting over her shoulders, keeping her close, her own snaking round my waist. "So…"

"Theoretically?" I repeated. She nodded. "She'd be… smoking hot-" I earned myself a slap for that. "-Okay, okay… erm, let's see… she'd be smart, and kind to everyone, and she'd have a great sense of humour… and she'd be interested in reading, and helping others, and her favourite colour would be yellow. She'd have this hair deeper red than fire, and her eyes would be…"

"If you say _'as blue as the ocean'_ I'm walking right out of here," She mocked.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm trying to compliment you and you're mocking me?" I pointed out, amused.

She shrugged. "I think I got the gist."

She smiled up at me, and blinked those amazing eyes of hers.

And that was all it took for me to lean in and kiss her, without hesitating.

I felt happy, definitely happy, because _Merlin_ she was _hot_, and sophisticated, and independent, and so very much out of my league, and I definitely had _some sort of _feelings for this girl; but also, guilty, because even last night I was hooking up with Ruth, feelings or no feelings. And, well, there was always that nagging feeling that I'd let my old self down maybe, because eleven year old Scorpius would _hate_ seventeen year old Scorpius, as absurd as that sounded.

Also, Al would kill me.

But she was soft, and gentle and a great kisser and immediately I could tell how much more I preferred kissing Rose to Ruth (not that I should compare them, but I couldn't help it).

We pulled apart for a moment, stared at each other in confirmation that this was really happening, shared a smile, and then we were kissing again, completely wrapped up in each other's arms.

I never wanted to let her go. I just wanted to ignore the fact that we'd somehow, miraculously, become friends despite our past, or Ruth, or Al, or my track record with girls and relationships, and simply be with her. Even if I didn't, truthfully, trust myself to committ to somebody - even her.

But, I wanted to keep her safe, and I just wanted to be the one who she smiled for like that, and who she immediately thought of going to in a situation, or telling news to when she heard it.

_Oh, Merlin, Scorpius, you really shouldn't fall for this girl_.

An over-door bell chiming and the mixture of an exclamation of surprise, a squeal of _'finally!' _and a furious voice snapped me right back to reality.

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><p><strong>Let me know what you thought, any theories, or just to let me know you're still there.<strong>

**Again, I'm so sorry about how long it's been since the last update, and I hope you're all well. :D x**


	7. Chapter 7

**133 reviews in 6 chapters? You guys are absoultely amazing, and I just feel even worse for not getting this up sooner. Literally, I haven't even been able to _look_ at FFN for a couple of weeks now, hence the ridiculous time it's taken me to update. I would grovel, but that's getting old now.**** All I can say is I'm very sorry that I'm taking so long to finish this story, and I hope to actually get it back on track now.  
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**I usually always respond to reviews but I only have enough right now to either respond _or_ update, and I thought it best that I finally update and just thank you all so so much for your support and reviews.  
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**I guess this is a key chapter so I hope you all like it. Please let me know?  
><strong>

**Disclaimer: If I was a wizard I could argue that this update isn't late, it arrived precisely when it meant to. But I'm not. And nor am I the queen, JK Rowling.  
><strong>

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><p>Maddie had been surprised, Bea had been positively exploding with excitement, and Al had been furious.<p>

Like, _'face goes blood red, eyebrows scrunch up, veins pop up everywhere'_ furious.

In fact, his anger, so surpassing my expectation, and Bea's complete puzzlement, led me to quickly believe that I wasn't the only one missing something.

"What the hell, Scorpius?" Al continued. "Get the _hell_ away from her. Right _now_!"

"Calm down, Al," Rose sighed, but she was silenced by a sharp and deathly glare from her cousin, and wisely chose to do as he said at that moment.

I stepped away from her, arms raised in front of me, palms out, in mock-surrender. "Merlin, Al, there's no need to be so _manic_."

"No need? _No need?_" He looked like he was going to explode.

I was definitely missing something here...

"I don't understand the problem," Bea asked weakly, glancing at Hamish (who held a perfect _'I couldn't care less either way'_ expression) and then at Al. "What's wrong with Rose and Scorpius being together? At least they're not tearing each other apart like they used to. They make a cute couple."

"What the hell is _wrong _with you, Scorpius?" Al ignored Bea completely, taking a short step towards me, and remained glaring.

"Nothing," I snapped back on reflex.

"Nothing?" The way he repeated it made me sure he was getting at something.

"Nothing," I growled. "What is going on with _you?_"

He let out a rather worrying, short, manic laugh. "I happen to be a perfect gentleman-"

Rose snorted. Al ignored her.

"I've had girlfriends, Scorpius. And I've not cheated on any of them."

I didn't see what that had to do with this situation, but the way he was glaring at me, I wasn't going to ask.

I snorted this time. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"How about Julie McClark?"

Hamish and Maddie shuffled awkwardly in the background.

Al's eyes narrowed, darkened, and then he took another step forwards and actually _growled _at me.

It was genuinely terrifying.

_Yeah._

_Nobody mentioned Julie McClark to Al._

"You _know_ the details of that, Scorpius. Don't you _dare_ throw that in my face," His voice was dangerously low as he growled at me again. I actually thought him might kill me.

I changed track quickly. "You're right, sorry. But either way what does that have to do with me?"

He gave an _'I can't believe your nerve', _disgusted glare, then snapped, "I knew you were a player, but this is low, even for you."

I was thoroughly confused, but more angry than anything.

I hadn't _done_ anything. I hadn't been flirting with anyone, or chatting anyone up, or leading anyone on as if I was going to ask them out, so what was the problem?

I wanted to actually _try_ at something with Rose. Believe it or not (and I somehow knew Al would _not_), I really liked her. Like, I'd definitely want a _relationship_.

Which was insane, if you knew me, but Rose Weasley just… she was interesting.

She had also taken a step away from me.

She still looked confused, but something in her brain was evidently telling her there was link, a reason for her to be on Al's side.

"I haven't _done_ anything, Albus," I shouted at him, completely frustrated now.

"You know you have, you tosspot," He growled at me. "I can read you like a book. And so can Ruth."

I faltered.

_Oh crap_.

_He thought there was something going on with Ruth and I._

_Which was ridiculous, because we'd agreed that there weren't going to be any feelings between us._

Rose took another, more determined step away from me.

And then Ruth arrived with Oliver.

_Brilliant bloody timing, _I snapped in my head.

"What's going on?" Oliver took one look at the situation and demanded. I swear, one day he was going to have to go into the military with that voice.

Al looked like he was trying to kill me with his brain through the intensity of his glare.

"Why don't you ask the bloody genius standing in front of you," he spat.

I actually blanched.

_I wasn't the only guy who had ever had a friends-with-benefits relationship. Al was being so dramatic._

"What the hell is your problem?" I asked again. They were all staring at me now, under the canopy from the shop. I was the only one in open snow, apart from Rose, who had taken three steps away from me now.

Oliver turned to me, half-defensive, half-friendly, "Scorpius? What's going on?"

"Al attacked me, that's what!"

"Why? What did you do?"

"Noth-"

"He was kissing Rose," Al thrust a finger towards me accusatorily.

I thought Oliver would just tell Al to grow up and get over the whole _Scorpius-fancies-his-cousin_ thing.

But no.

Oliver's head snapped round to face me, glaring worse than Al.

"Wha-"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" He demanded vehemently. "Do you have _no_ sense of decency? _No_ sense of etiquette or manners or… society?"

Okay, _now_ he was overreacting.

"Oli-"

"You can't just sleep with my sister, use her, make her think you have feelings for her, and then kiss another girl! Another one of our friends!"

_Oh._

_So he knew about it…_

_And he thought I was leading her on?_

_**That's**__ why he was angry._

I glanced round the group of us. Al and Oliver were glaring like there was no tomorrow, Rose looked completely shocked and appalled, Ruth's face was a soft, blank expression (which worried me), and the others just looked uncomfortable.

"You _all_ knew?" I managed to croak out after a long moment of silence.

"Ruth's obviously desperately in love with you," Katie squeaked out. I hadn't noticed her, Sam and an uncomfortable looking Aaron (who didn't usually hang round with us, so he'd chosen such a brilliant day to do _that _for the first time) exit from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

I swallowed.

_In __**love**__ with me? No._

_Yet-  
><em>

_Oh shit.  
><em>

I'm so selfish.

_No, no, no._

I'd been trying to convince myself for the past year and a half that Ruth didn't _fancy_ me… I hadn't even _thought _about… about _love_.

_Oh god._

"It's true?" Rose asked, her voice rising an octave. I didn't reply. I really didn't want to admit to this girl that I'd kinda, maybe, fallen for, who had somehow managed to make _me_ fall, that I'd just broken somebody else's heart.

I knew I wasn't exactly a martyr, but... was I really _this_ bad?

"You… lied to me," Rose continued. "Straight to my face."

She sounded horrified, and completely disappointed.

And angry.

"Come on, Rose," Al gently took his cousins arm. "Let's go."

She shook him off for a moment and walked right up to me. "I never thought you were this bad a guy, Scorpius."

Then they hurried down Hogsmeade and towards the road that led to Hogwarts. Katie, Sam, Aaron, Hamish and Bea avoided my eyes as they slowly left too.

"Not you lot too," I complained, calling after them. "Guys!"

They ignored me.

_Everyone was acting like I'd brought about the apocalypse. Or run over my grandma with the car._

_Shut up, Scorpius_, I thought to the annoying, arrogant, conceited part of my brain (which was unfortunately the dominant part).

_Do you realise how shamefully you used that girl you supposedly care about? _I heard in my mother's voice._  
><em>

I spun back to the twins.

"I… can't believe you," Ruth finally spoke, swallowing hard. Her voice was soft and timid and hurt.

I squeezed my eyes shut for a long moment as a strange, foreign emotion hit me.

Self-loathing.

_I was a terrible person._

Ruth had never - _never_ - been this sensitive, or timid, or surprised by anyone. Not ever.

_Oh, god, she loved you._

_Loves you._

_Loved?_

I was so confused.

And she had trusted me, more than she trusted anybody but her brother, and I'd completely abused that trust.

Not to mention I'd just broken her heart.

She had a heart of steel, and I'd broken it.

_Girls were right - guys can be jerks sometimes. We just didn't realise it._

I was a complete idiot for thinking that if I pretended there wasn't a problem, if I ignored the fact that she had feelings for me, it would go away.

That had been selfish.

As Oliver led her away from me, his shoulder brushing part mine, the disappointed and regretful look in his eyes worse than anything, I caught sight of Ruth's face.

She was trying to hide it, but I still caught the tears.

_Oh god._

_I'm a terrible, terrible, terrible person._

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><p><strong>Sorry for the melodrama. I hope it's not too cringey to read. I'm still finding my way in the world of more-angsty-fanfiction.<strong>

**Also, I'd just like to point out that I, in no way, think all guys are idiots. In my experience, girls can be a lot worse.  
><strong>

**Anyways, I hope there are people still reading this, and if there are, I'd love a quick word or two just so I know you're still there. And of course, if you actually like what I'm writing...  
><strong>

**Thank you for reading!  
><strong>


	8. Chapter 8

**I'm not going to say these updates will hopefully continue to come, because we all know how well _that's_ turned out before. However, I am going to thank you all for your kind words, in reviews and PMs and your continued support with it. I'm not the best updater, and for that I'm sorry. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.**

**Thank you all for being brilliant.  
><strong>

**Disclaimer: If I was an international best seller, I'd probably have a publisher complaining about my lack of sticking to deadlines. As it is, I'm obviously not JK Rowling.**

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><p>I was half glad for the Christmas holidays - everybody pretty much hated me, which I wasn't surprised about, and I didn't have to catch their glares and disappointed looks anymore.<p>

I hid in the library for most of the day the Hogwarts Express was due to pick us up at four o'clock.

I thought I'd done a successful job, mulling through really old books that nobody used in a dark and deserted corner of the library for most of the morning.

I actually started to convince myself that maybe, just _maybe_, everybody would get over the whole thing by New Years.

Of course Ruth wouldn't. She held grudges, and she now probably hated me more than she hated most people. And she _really_ disliked people, in general.

Hell, I hated myself.

Yeah, she'd pushed it, she'd initiated it, she'd known I'd said I didn't like her, but the sheer fact that I hadn't stopped it gave her that hope.

She rarely got her hopes up - pretty much viewed everything in life with the expectation of being disappointed - and I'd ruined this for her.

_I should have stopped it._

_I __**especially**__ shouldn't have got with Rose at the same time._

_You just wanted to get laid._

_You are a terrible person._

I was giving myself a headache.

And then Rose turned up.

I was a nervous, awkward, ridiculous, embarrassing wreck around her.

I desperately wanted her to not hate me. I mean, I hadn't, as such, hurt her, but I knew she liked Ruth (for _some_ reason), and she was fiercely protective of her family and friends. She had this immense moral code, which was ironically something I loved about her, as I had a hard time finding the line in morals (I definitely knew that now), so I didn't know how she'd react.

"Scorpius?" She called gently, tentatively peering round the bookcase.

I fell off my chair.

_Smooth, I know_.

"Rose?" I asked, surprised, reclaiming my chair. "Rose!"

"Hi," She mumbled awkwardly, taking a seat opposite me. I noticed she perched on the edge of it, like she was ready to leave at a moments notice, ready to be disappointed.

I didn't blame her.

"You… you're talking to me?" I asked, trying to keep the hope and desperation out of my voice.

It didn't work.

She bit her lip nervously, and glanced down at the floor.

"You're… not talking to me," I corrected myself. "Right, of course…"

"Scor-" She started slowly.

"Look, I know I was a jerk, I _know_ that Rose, but I'm not the only one to blame. Ruth isn't exactly the innocent one here. And I really _really_ do like you. I really do. I haven't felt like this since… well, ever, really. And I want to be with you. That's the truth, I swear it. I didn't realise what I was doing, I was so wrapped up in my own little world. I know I'm selfish, I'm trying to change that, because you mean a lot to me. Which sounds cliché and insincere, but I really lo-"

"Don't," She interrupted me curtly, steeling herself against what I was sure was a pathetic expression on my face. "I'm sorry, Malfoy, but I…"

She sighed.

'_Malfoy'. Right._

"R-"

"I just came to ask you one thing, and then… I don't know," She sighed.

"You won't talk to me again, you mean? You're just going to freeze me out too? I thought we were friends? Come _on_, Rose, I know you like me just as much as I-"

"Did you?" She interrupted again. I must have looked confused because she elaborated, putting on a cold demeanour, her way of dealing with the situation. "Did you use her? Did you sleep with her and expect nothing to happen? Honestly, just because she acted uninterested doesn't mean she wasn't. Don't you _know_ Ruth _at all_? Of course she acted stoic and distant, that's who she is…"

"No!" I blurted on reflex. I mentally kicked myself as she lifted one perfect eyebrow, sceptical. "No, I- No, I mean, yes."

"Which one?"

"Yes," I sighed, suddenly exhausted. _Who cared about technicalities anymore? If they wanted to put __**all**__ the blame on me, fine. I was done arguing. _"Yes, I did. I convinced myself she didn't have feeling for me, because they were an inconvenience to me, and I-"

"An _inconvenience_? To _you?_" She looked annoyed now. Giving up the fight seemed to just make things worse. "Ruth isn't exactly a nice person, but that doesn't make her a terrible one, Scorpius. She loved you - or loves you, who knows, because you've hurt her badly, but it's hard to get over first loves…"

Then she stood up abruptly.

"Rose-"

"I'm sorry, I can't…"

"Rose!" I called after her as she left. "Rose!"

There was no point in calling again.

She'd gone.

I slammed my head against the table, _hard_.

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><p>My mum had noticed something was wrong over Christmas, but I wasn't going to tell <em>her<em>, was I?

I mean, what would I say? _'Oh yeah, mum, so I've been sleeping with this girl-'_ That would be enough to give her a heart attack on its own.

My dad was equally ruled out.

No _way_ was I going to talk to him about this.

We just… didn't. Ever.

_Maybe Durmstrang will take you, Scorpius?_

_That's it, run away and hide like the coward you are._

Staying at home for two weeks was both a blessing and a curse: a blessing because I wasn't constantly followed by the whispers of practically every student at Hogwarts (because the news had got round that I was a man-whore and used girls, of course. Ruth was suddenly everybody's favourite victim, I guess they had to blame somebody, and people like to see things in black and white); but a curse because I had two whole weeks to sit by myself and think.

It was terrible.

All I could think about to start with was how I'd had the insane luck to fall in love - might as well admit it, absence really does make the heart grow fonder - with the most brilliant girl in the world, the most sophisticated and smart and adorable girl I'd ever met, who was _so_ out of my league (or anybody else's, for that matter), and then I'd ruined it.

I smacked myself on the forehead.

_You complete idiot._

I didn't talk to anyone, not even my sister Ophelia, who tried to inform me of what was going on with the others.

She'd heard, of course.

She liked to frown at me in disgust whenever I walked into the room, but mostly she accepted that I wasn't the only one to blame. One of the first things she'd said to me had involved being shocked at the idea that I could do something so horrible to somebody I cared about. After all, Ruth and I had known each other since we were little, since before Primary school.

It was actually something Ophelia had said on Christmas Eve that made me realise, _again_, that I was being incredibly selfish by thinking about myself, _again_.

She'd been checking the decorations on the tree and agreeing with me whenever I voiced a thought about how much everybody probably hated me right now (because, well, she's my sister, and even if she was more level-headed than most, she liked to agree that I was an idiot whenever the opportunity arrived), when she suddenly commented, "Look, Scor, I know you're being unfairly treated by the student body, yadda yadda yadda, but, honestly, who cares about _you?_ In your distress at being the little victim in all of this, did you ever stop to think that Ruth was still hurt, no matter the semantics of it? She's probably been crawled up in a ball in the dark for the last week and a half. And she's probably dreading going back to Hogwarts now that everybody knows. Do you know how humiliating it is when some _selfish, useless, pathetic_ guy just _uses_ you, makes you fall in love with them, makes you practically think about them all the time, encourages it, and then turns around and destroys it. Plus, you get a bonus for not even _noticing_."

I stared at her in alarm from my position on the sofa. She had worked herself up into a little bit of a frenzy, bauble obliterated in her fist, and I made a note to ask one of my friends about that. I usually made it a rule _never_ to be told about _any _personal gossip about my sister - if she wanted me to know, or comfort her, she came and found me, and vice versa. That was our pact.

Well, I started making the mental note, before I remembered that I possibly had _no_ friends any more. I'd find out who calmed down over the holidays when we went back. _Hamish would probably see reason, right?_

Hogwarts was going to be _brilliant_.

* * *

><p>That sarcasm pretty much summed it up, and then some, when I returned back to Hogwarts in the New Year.<p>

It was already depressing enough, with whispers and dirty looks following me around everywhere. I was by no means the only guy to ever do this to a girl, but it seemed _everybody_ had known Ruth was in love with me since last year. Which meant they all assumed I was _purposefully_ hurting her. _Of course._

Bloody brilliant.

_And_ I couldn't come up with _one_ good way to make it up to her.

What was I supposed to do? I couldn't exactly give myself a taste of my own medicine by forcing myself to fall in love with her and then get my heart broken, could I?

Things didn't work like that.

Well, actually, I wasn't too far off.

Because I _was_ in love with someone, someone who was now ignoring me under girl code, moral codes, anger, disappointment, previous-hatred, etc… and that someone had acquired a boyfriend.

Yes.

Rose Weasley was dating a boy.

And I happened to bloody walk into them snogging in the corridor on the first day back.

"Aaron?!"

He looked alarmed, which I was pretty smug about.

"S-Scorpius. Hi." He shuffled his feet and let go of Rose.

_Yeah… you know when I was wishing at least __**one**__ person was talking to me?_

_Yeah, I should have specified._

_Not bloody Aaron._

I snapped my gaze to Rose's. She looked a little sheepish.

"So you just jumped ship?" I snapped without thinking.

Immediately, I knew that was possibly the worst thing I could say.

She blinked, and her expression immediately changed from bashful to exasperated anger. "_Excuse _me?!"

_Oh sh-_

"No, I didn't-"

She sneered at me - actually _sneered_ - and barged past me so forcefully that she knocked my bag off my shoulder and I stumbled a little.

"You can talk," She spat under her breath as she passed.

There was a couple of seconds of awkward silence between Aaron and I.

He gave me a friendly sigh. "Girls, eh?"

I rolled my eyes, in no mood to be all goody-goody with him. "Shut up, Aaron."

I stormed off down the corridor, catching Rose outside the History of Magic classroom. Aaron trailed behind us. Some students watched on, interested for gossip and a scene.

"Rose-"

"Scorpius," She warned, trying to dodge past me and into the classroom. I blocked her escape with my arm across the door.

I stared at her, trying to get my head around it.

Okay, so _I_ couldn't sleep with someone else whilst building a relationship with her, because _that_ was wrong, but getting with two guys in the space of a couple of weeks wasn't to be judged?

What the hell?

Neither of our actions actually meant anything, because neither of us had technically done anything wrong, but being a teenager meant everybody loved to cause drama and knew everybody's business. So as a collective body we'd made a social code that meant we were both now technically get-arounds.

Ridiculous.

Still. I was pretty angry.

Yes, it was irrational. I realised that later.

Yes, it was causing a scene.

And, yes, it wasn't my place to interfere at all.

But, screw that.

"What the hell?!" I directed my words at her, getting angry too. "Not judging or anything, Rose, but a little bit hypocritical, don't you think?"

Her face went hard. "Careful, Scorpius, I still want to be friends at some-"

I rolled my eyes and shook my head at her in my annoyance. _Yeah, in hindsight I possibly shouldn't have done that._ "I can't believe you were all high and mighty about me and Ruth, when you _know_ more than anybody that I hadn't cheated on anybody, and yet here _you_ are, two weeks after practically agreeing to be my girlfriend, and you're already with _him!_"

I pointed angrily at Aaron, who looked pretty insulted, to be honest.

Good.

Rose, on the other hand, looked livid.

_Yeah, smooth move, Scorpius. You haven't just insulted somebody who hasn't done anything wrong._

_Screw that. She's with another guy already!_

"Get _the hell_ out of here before I curse you into next week and make it so that you'll _never _be having children, Malfoy."

I scoffed. "You know what? I'm going." I held my hands up in tactical retreat, and mocking. "I don't have time for get-arounds anyway."

I probably deserved the bat-bogey hex I got.

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><p><strong>I know a lot of you were expressing the opinion in your reviews that some of the characters were overreacting to Scorpius, and I agree, but this story is how people do react, even if it makes no rational sense what so ever. It's just what happens in life. People like drama, so I wrote it like that. I hope you stay tuned - <strong>**the next chapter involves a conversation between Scorpius and Ruth.**

**I'd love to hear your opinions on this chapter - it's lovely when everybody has ideas and responds so animatedly! :D  
><strong>

**Thank you for reading! **


	9. Chapter 9

**I would _like_ to say that I've properly proof-read and veto'ed this... but I haven't. This story is coming to an end now, but I'm trying to do it justice for all you amazing people who actually like this story! I hope you like this chapter.**

**Also, thank you all _so so so so _much for your reviews - criticisms and praise. I'm so sorry I'm not replying to them all - it's becoming hard just to get a chapter up. I'm so thankful for every single person who takes the time to read this, and even more to those who review. Thank you all! x x  
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><p>During Defense Against the Dark Arts four days later, I did the worst thing yet.<p>

Bea had been attempting to rebound a curse sent her way by Sam, but instead of turning it back upon him, she got her angle wrong, and the spell careened into Rose, knocking her cleanly off her feet, stumbling into the desk behind her, in turn forcing me to the ground.

I acted as a sort of cushion for Rose (and the table). Winded, but mostly okay, I pulled her up on to her feet as I stood. She snatched her arm out of my grip immediately, giving me a dirty look as if it had been my fault, and stormed over to the desk to pick it up.

I went to help, as much as I didn't want to be around the glares, because I'd been part of the accident and Merlin knows Professor Ruben would _kill_ us for messing up her perfect classroom.

Rose was blowing her hair out of her face and straightening her uniform. Instead of straightening te papers, she got out a small mirror from her pocket and proceeded to ignore me struggling with the table and instead fixed her hair and reapplied her lipstick.

I couldn't help it but scoff.

She glanced up at me and raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"How vain _are _you?" I snapped.

She recoiled like she'd been slapped, a short moments hesitation and hurt showing.

I realised my mistake a split second too late as the memory of that night in the library came back to me: _"I looked at them every day for five years and compared myself… It just makes you bitter and vain."_

_Crap._

I'd just called her out on the one thing she'd confided in me, the one thing she didn't want to become. In front of everybody.

Some of the guys were laughing, some of the girls rolling the eyes, while others just looked on in envy.

Rose flipped her hair out of her face and walked off, turning her back on me and snapping, "Tell me, are all Malfoy's self-centred, or is it just you and your grandfather?"

My reaction was instantaneous.

I lunged forward with my wand in hand, ready to do Merlin knows what, before some of the guys in Hufflepuff grabbed me.

"You better take that back, you hypocrite!"

"Why?" She scoffed, evidently pleased with herself for gaining this reaction out of me. "You've obviously inherited his traits. Once a traitor, always a traitor."

Most of the students were frozen, shocked. A couple of pretty girls Rose was now friends with tried to turn her away from me and distract her from getting riled up, but my next words effectively made their efforts futile.

"When you were at Beauxbatons did they hand out awards for most bitchy, or did they just give it to the person people liked the least?"

She went mental and started screaming at me, so I carried on with, "Careful, Rosie, seems like you've dropped your ladylike act. Wouldn't want to disappoint mummy and daddy. The Golden Child is always well behaved, after all."

"You really are a bastard, you know that, right? You son of a-"

"Miss Weasley!"

"You're a sorry excuse for a man, _Malfoy. _If you're the best hope Hogwarts has, then Merlin help me I'd rather go back to the derogatory misogynists at Durmstrang!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yes!" She pronounced it exactly to piss me off.

"I bet they love you at Durmstrang, running around a flipping your hair and batting your eyelashes after them all. Once a get around, always a get around, Rose."

"Why you-"

She lunged across the room, looking for her wand (which I was thankful somebody had taken off her earlier). We got within arms distance of each other before Professor Ruben kicked us out of class.

We were yelling so loudly we'd disturbed the whole corridor - it was lined with students and professors from other classes down the hall.

As I was being dragged towards McGonagall's office by Professor Keene - a tall, lean, strong, middle aged Charms teacher - I was yelling abuse like there was no tomorrow. Rose was equally as red in the face, a sure sign of her vehement anger.

"I _hate_ you, you arrogant, selfish, cruel little boy!" She finally snapped.

"Why don't you run off to your pansy little boyfriend then!"

Professor Keene pulled me down the flight of stairs before I could hear her response.

* * *

><p>Fighting with her was petty and ridiculous and helped nobody.<p>

But I sure felt good yelling at somebody.

It was the worst thing either of us could have done, our friendship being in the precarious position it had been.

And the worst thing was, the was no reason for us to do it. We just knew each other too well - unfortunately well enough to know how to send the other into blinding anger.

And we both had hot tempers.

We didn't talk for nearly six weeks.

Hogwarts was still alight with the gossip of our argument by the time Valentine's Day came around. Students would probably still be talking about it in years to come. If I had been a bystander, I'd be the one gossiping eagerly about it too, to be honest.

As it was, it felt pretty crappy to know people were talking about us all the time.

We were both suspended from, well, every activity we did until we apologised to each other. Needless to say, neither of us did, and we had to be tutored in isolation for the first two weeks.

Eventually McGonagall realised we were getting nowhere, and put us back in regular classes. _That_ was fun.

Almost every other lesson we had a minor disagreement, despite being put at opposite ends of the classroom.

It turns out, even if you fight with somebody for no reason, that fight can pretty much ruin your friendship if you say enough of the right words.

About two days after Valentine's Day, I was studying (sulking and grumbling to myself) in the library, trying to come up with something to write in my essay on dragon eggs, when the most surprising person plonked herself in the seat opposite me with an air of dramatics only she could manage.

"I heard about your fight with Rose."

No '_hello'_ or '_listen, Scorpius'_, just that blunt interruption.

I glared up at her, barely bothering to focus my attention on her, to see her flick that ridiculous blonde bob out of her eyes.

She had her elbows resting on the table in front of her, but moved them briefly to take the hardback book out of my hands and throw it on the floor.

"Good for you," I said. "Hasn't everybody?"

She shrugged her shoulders, but continued on her own line of conversation. "You were an idiot."

"She started it."

"_You_ started it," Ruth rolled her eyes at me. "I was there."

"Well then why are you talking to me if you don't want more information for gossip?" I spat, reaching to pick the book up off the floor.

"Because I came to tell you you're an idiot."

"Well job done. Now leave."

She stayed right where she was.

We stared at each other for a long couple of minutes, until I gave up being confrontational. Ruth was simply patient.

"What do you really want, Ruth?" I sighed, putting my pen down.

Her voice went soft. "I wanted to say I'msorry."

That almost reunited my anger. "You're _sorry_?!"

She sighed this time. "Look, Scor, I should have come to you sooner and straightened everything out before…"

"Before Rose got a new boyfriend? Or before we tore each other apart and ruined our friendship?" I supplied harshly. She remained quiet. "You managed to come out of our situation as the innocent victim, and while everybody was saying how much they hated me for what _I_ did to _you_, where was your apology _then_?"

She swallowed and leaned across the table to take my hands in hers. I flinched, but didn't pull them away - she was giving me a piercing, pleading look which I couldn't ignore.

"Scorpius, you were a bastard to me."

"I-"

"No, listen. You _did_ break my heart, and you _should _have broken things off with us as soon as you realised you were falling for another girl. Feelings make everything more messy." I went to interrupt there, but she continued. "_But_… you're completely right. I was the one who initiated it, and pushed it. I was feeling more than I let on, and so it was ultimately my fault that I got hurt. I'm sorry everybody reacted the way they did, but I couldn't control or predict that Al and Oliver and everyone were going to go berserk. By the time I came to my senses and stopped feeling sorry for myself, I realised how unfair it had been on you to let everyone blame you."

She took a deep breath.

I realised she was waiting for me to say something.

I swallowed, and blinked.

_Well, whatever I'd been expecting… it hadn't been that._

"Ruth," I hesitated, unsure of what to say. I could storm off like a child and not accept her apology, but that would get me nowhere. It would just continue this ridiculous drama that had happened between us all. So I said, "I'm sorry too."

She smiled weakly. "And really, it was nobody's business what goes on between us. We should have told them that there and then. I guess I just… reacted badly."

"Me too," I agreed. Then I let out a weak chuckle. "Merlin, Al and Oliver know how to be drama queens, don't they?"

She laughed too as she got to her feet. "That they do."

"So… I'll see you around?" I asked, unsure of where this put us now.

Ruth rolled her eyes. "Scorpius, please, don't be such a girl. Of course I'll see you around, we go to the same school."

And she waltzed off behind the bookshelf in the typical Ruth manner.

I actually smiled to myself. _That sounded more like the Ruth I knew_.

Suddenly, her head popped back round the side of the bookcase. "And Scorpius?"

"Hmm?"

"I'll talk to Rose, but you might want to fix things with her soon. I don't know if you've noticed, but those sluts she hangs around with aren't exactly her friends, and something tells me she's going to need a friend soon."

And _then_ she disappeared.

'_Something tells me…' she'd said. _I creased my eyebrows. _Did Ruth know something the rest of us didn't?_

* * *

><p><strong>So, that's chapter nine.I had to move it along a bit. I promised you guys a ScorpiusRuth conversation, and I hope you like how it played out? Let me know your thoughts, I hope they're kind? :D  
><strong>

**Anybody's opinions on Ruth changed? Or opinions on Rose?  
><strong>

**Much love, Sarcastic-Bones. x  
><strong>


	10. Chapter 10

**If there****'****s any life out there still subscribed to this story, you are my favourite people on Earth. I know it****'****s been just **_**so**_** long since this has been updated, but I couldn****'****t leave it unfinished. I****'****ve had a lot of personal issues and some very extreme changes in my life recently, so I****'****ve basically disappeared off the face of the FFN planet.**

**Basically, I've tried to end this story in a way which seems natural and is enjoyable. This was, after all, supposed to be the last chapter anyway, but of course I've lost track of my original ending in the last year or so. I just hope it lives up to what you all want.**

**As a reminder, the last chapter ended with a conversation between Ruth and Scorpius, and a hint that Rose might have something bad coming.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy.**

* * *

><p>That first day at breakfast when Ruth came and sat next to me, pointedly and confidently ignoring the stares and whispers which followed her across the hall and to my lonely spot at the end of the Gryffindor table, Hogwarts exploded with more rumours and gossip.<p>

By break time, people were _smiling_ at me again. Like, friendly.

I found out from some guys in the bathroom (yeah, it was a social place for us too) that the general 'Chinese Whispers' version of the whole Ruth-Rose-Me thing was that I'd strung Ruth along and then cheated on her for Rose. Now that Ruth was talking to me again, most of the student body felt they were entitled to forgive me too.

Plus, I'd started damage control by telling the few groups of people I encountered the _real_ events (albeit simplified).

By lunch time, I needed a nap. It was so tiring.

I was half-tempted to go back to weeks of isolation and sadness.

"Atta boy," Ruth drawled across the table in the Great Hall. "You've got your fighting spirit back."

I glared at her.

Then I caught Rose watching us.

She averted her gaze as quickly as possible and I wasn't able to gauge her reaction.

_Was she put out? Jealous? Annoyed?_

_Who knew._

"It would just be so much easier to make a damn announcement," I mumbled sarcastically. "Maybe then people will stop staring."

Ruth rolled her eyes and then, to my embarrassment, catapulted herself on to her feet on the bench, attracting the attention of a few students within a couple of meters radius.

"Attention all gossips, airheads and sluts who can't keep their nose out of anybody else's business," She began, and I mentally slapped myself for even suggesting this. Some of the students laughed, others looked interested. "I'm grateful for all your concern, but we're not six years olds who've argued over the last Barbie doll. Scorpius and I are fine, and it's none of your business what's happened. Please keep your ridiculously shaped noses out of our business, and stop staring at us. It's creepy."

And then she sat back down.

A group of guys a little ways down the Hufflepuff table clapped her. Most of the others in the area laughed, some of the girls looked affronted.

I tried to suppress a smile.

"You're welcome," Ruth told me, flipping her hair.

I rolled my eyes.

But, Merlin, it was good to have a friend again.

Bea was absolutely ecstatic the first time I ran into her in Herbology.

"Scorpius!" She squealed, hugging me tightly. "Oh Merlin, I'm so so _so_ glad everyone's talking to you again! I've missed you."

Utterly confused and sharing an anxious look with a passing group of guys we knew, I hugged her back awkwardly. "Nice to see you too, Bea."

"Come on," She gushed. "You can be my lab partner!"

Katie and Sam had largely stayed out of the situation, and had actually been some of the few people who had spoken to me since Christmas (along with Hamish, who didn't see the need in picking sides in the first place), so they continued as normal, albeit a little more relaxed and open in conversation again.

The real interesting situation came about two weeks into March when, randomly, Oliver joined the others in sitting with me at the dinner table.

He didn't comment, just acknowledged me once with a mature handshake and a nod of his head, and that was it. It took another week or so for us to get back into the swing of general conversation, but that was it.

I didn't ask for an apology either, or get petty. He was defending his sister, and taking her side. He was perfectly within his own right to do so.

The whole situation had just gotten _way_ out of control, and it was time we all grew up and started fixing it.

Plus, if Oliver had slept with Ophelia and broken things off with her, I would have taken her side too.

So, it was whilst walking out of Charms with Oliver on our way to lunch when _it_ happened during the beginning of April.

The student body had clustered together and was blocking off the second floor staircase, just outside the girl's bathroom - a clear sign of a commotion.

To start with we assumed there was a fight going on, just the usual minor wand fight, or a screaming match between girls, but once we pushed our way towards the front, we saw it.

Rose was on the floor, her bag a strewn mess a couple of meters behind her. Aaron was standing awkwardly beside a smug-looking girl a year above us.

Everybody was quiet, which proved just how unusual the situation was.

People had broken up in public before, but not like this.

Rose just looked absolutely devastated, and nobody had moved to help her.

"Why isn't anybody doing anything?" I whispered to Oliver. "Where are her friends?"

"Those girls she hangs around with?" Oliver gave me a confused, then sad look as he read my face. "They're not her friends. They don't care two bits about her."

I stared at the scene in front of me, hardly believing what I was seeing.

"How could…" Rose tried to breathe through her tears.

Aaron just stood there, letting her be humiliated. At least he had the decency to look ashamed of himself. The girl couldn't even manage that.

"Get up off the floor and go run back to your little French school," She snapped. "It's so pathetic."

I didn't realise what I was doing until I'd pushed my way through the crowds. Oliver tried to grab me, but I shoved his hand off my shoulder.

"Rose," I called her name, effectively getting the other students to move out of the way and let me through. I reached her and dropped to the floor to shield her from the view of the prying eyes of the pitying but gossiping student body. "Rose…" I whispered softly, brushing her hair out of her eyes.

She tried to push me away. "Don't…"

"Rose," I said more firmly. "Don't be too proud to accept help."

"I can't…" She breathed tiredly, glancing up at me. "I can't deal with anything right now. Please…"

She was tired, and her make-up was a mess.

She looked like she had given up on anything and everything. It was absolutely devastating.

"I'm not trying to fight with you," I told her. "I'm trying to help you and, to be honest, you may not like me right now, but I damn well seem to be the only person by your side."

She hesitated, surprised. Then she let me help her up.

The older girl was glaring at us, obviously annoyed her show had been cut short.

"Scorpius Malfoy, aren't you such a gentleman…" I ignored her, trying to steer Rose down the corridor. As I stopped to grab her bag, the girl said, "Oh no, sorry, I forgot about the man-whore bit. My bad."

I snapped round at her without hesitating, invading her personal space, practically snarling, pulling my wand out of my pocket and placing it against her neck. "You shouldn't run your mouth off about something you don't know anything about, _Ellie_."

I breathed it so low and so quietly that she stared at me with wide, terrified eyes and managed a weak, croaky, "S-sorry…"

And with that I pulled Rose into the girl's bathroom and slammed the door shut on the rest of the student body which had gathered. I just about heard them erupt into conversation as the door slammed shut, leaving us in silence.

I turned to Rose, and we exchanged an awkward glance.

It was the first time we'd been alone together since Hogsmeade.

_This was going to be interesting_.

She spun away from me immediately after our eyes met, leaning on one of the sinks.

Through the reflection in the mirror I could see her trying to wipe heavily-run make-up off her face.

"Are you ok?" I finally decided upon asking.

She sniffed a little and avoided eye contact whilst she washed her face. I gave her a few minutes, then pressed the matter again.

"Are you hurt?" I asked sincerely.

"No," She whispered.

"Are you sure?" I took a step forwards, unconvinced.

"No," She repeated.

"Do you want a hug?" I offered. It might have seemed like a crossing of that imaginary line (after all, why _would_ she want a hug from me if she hated me?) but it wasn't.

"N-n…" She managed before she turned and practically fell into my waiting arms.

I held her against my chest for what seemed like hours as she cried and tried to catch her breath and cried some more. Sometimes I stroked her hair to let her know I was still here and still worried.

Eventually, her breathing slowed and she moved her arms, which had previously been crushed between us, to wrap them around my neck. She clung on for dear life.

"Thank you," She said.

I didn't protest or try to get any more out of her. It was enough that she'd said it After all, I'd had to learn what it was to admit defeat and swallow my pride – this was her turn.

"You're always welcome," I said.

* * *

><p>I walked her back to her dorm and, somehow, we ended up sitting against the wall in the corridor in the complete silence of the castle. Nobody else was around, and even the paintings seemed to have disappeared off somewhere.<p>

"I can't believe we let everything get so messy," She said, looking over at me.

"I know."

"People are so…" She searched for the right word, "easily persuaded."

"Maybe we just all care too much what others think."

She nodded and let out the tiniest hint of a smile. The first reserved for me in a long, long while. "Oh, I definitely did." She admitted.

I met her eyes. "So did I."

"Well, if we're going to be friends again, we need to learn to trust each other, don't you think?"

I blinked, turning my whole boy to face her now.

"You want to be friends again? Seriously?" I couldn't stop the hopefulness from creeping into my voice.

Of course I wanted to be friends again. We'd got along so well until it had all been ruined by misunderstandings, miscommunications and pride.

I just wished we could go back to the simply days where the criteria for friendship relied upon both enjoying Chocolate Frog Cards or finding a worm under a rock cool.

She smiled again.

"You were the only person who helped me today, Scorpius," She reminded me. "I think we were friends all along."

I smiled genuinely for the first time in a long time as I considered those words.

"Is it possible to be friends but simultaneously be yelling hexes across a classroom at each other?" I pointed out.

There was a long pause whilst she considered it. Considered us, actually, I realized. After all, we were really having a conversation about where we were, where our relationship was, and where it could go from here.

Would it be easier to just break ties and be acquaintances? Yes, of course it would be. Relationships with people were messy and complicated and inevitably ended up hurting one or both parties. And we'd been through a thoroughly ridiculous and tiring ordeal, not least feeling tormented by the other for, well - when it really all came down to it – what?

We'd both been wrong, but what was new there? Everybody was wrong sometimes, and behaved in ways they regretted.

So I was really asking if we could move on and, eventually, move back to where we had been. I was _really _asking what potential she saw in us, now that it had all been said and done.

"Well…"

She finally turned to look at me, the slightest hint of playfulness twinkling behind her tired eyes:

"Maybe the line between love and hate isn't quite so clear."

* * *

><p><strong>And that's that.<strong>

**I honestly do really hope this at least has a cathartic effect on you, or makes you feel ****hopeful for the characters. When I set out to write this story, I really did want to give some meaning to, and I've tried to do so. I hope you've all enjoyed it. I would love to know if the ending lived up to your expectations.**

**I also want to thank everyone one last time for sticking to the end. It's been a _long_ hiatus.**

**Much love,**

**Sarcastic-Bones x**


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